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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Aesthetic Experience and the (Queer) Self

Blum, Elaine M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334261034

Abstract Details

2012, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Philosophy.
The primary study of this thesis is to account for the dynamic construction and understanding of self; this entails considering the queer. That is, my project is to consider how we best understand the self or subjectivity in such a way that accounts for its particularity, peculiarity, and diversity. Within this project, I consider how we account for queer subjects -- in the sense that all selves are somehow deviant, non-normative, or peculiar -- that nonetheless appeal to some general framework of shared, identifiable meaning. To do this, I adopt Judith Butler’s notion of the performative self and synthesize this framework with pragmatic conceptions of the interdependence between self and society, specifically as present in the writings of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead. These two frameworks of selfhood represent two basic tenets: the self as (i) cohesive and nascent, underway and developing, and (ii) reciprocally reliant on its surrounding society. These frameworks then allow me a further step, to appropriate Dewey’s aesthetics and recognize the pervasive influence of the aesthetic in experiencing and interpreting our world and ourselves. Using these frameworks -- Butler’s performative self and Dewey’s aesthetics -- I propose a new conceptualization of the self. In order to fully account for the diversity, complexity, and peculiarity of the self -- in order to account for the queer -- we best understand the self in and through aesthetic experience, through understanding the self as a work of art.
Frank X. Ryan, PhD (Committee Chair)
Kim Garchar, PhD (Committee Member)
Jung-Yeup Kim, PhD (Committee Member)
Tiffany Taylor, PhD (Committee Member)
113 p.
Philosophy
Aesthetics; Pragmatism; Queer Theory; Gender; Judith Butler; John Dewey;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Blum, E. M. (2012). Aesthetic Experience and the (Queer) Self [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334261034

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Blum, Elaine. Aesthetic Experience and the (Queer) Self. 2012. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334261034.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Blum, Elaine. "Aesthetic Experience and the (Queer) Self." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1334261034

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1334261034
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.