The making of a society is the finding of common meanings and directions, and its. Engaging ugliness beyond the realm of art and aesthetics and into the realm of sound, sight, and embodiment, ugliness. Henderson explores the ways we have perceived ugliness throughout history, from ancient roman feasts to medieval grotesque gargoyles, from mary shelleys frankenstein to the nazi exhibition of degenerate art. A cultural history is a provocative book because, while exploring our relationship to that which we brand as ugly or beautiful, gretchen henderson forces us to reflect on our tastes and fears, our social conventions and our everyday notions of justice. In the mold of his acclaimed history of beauty, renowned cultural critic umberto ecos on ugliness is an exploration of the monstrous and the repellant in visual culture and the arts. Henderson ventures on a critical journey through the history of ugliness, viewing the concept. Pdf ugliness or unsightliness is much more than a quality or. A cultural history, published this month, gretchen henderson traces the connectionssome obvious, but many not at all. Umberto eco is notorious as the italian professor of semiotics who wrote a. A cultural history explores perceptions of ugliness through history, from ancient roman feasts to medieval grotesque gargoyles, and from dr frankensteins monster to the nazi exhibition of covering literature, art, music and even uglydolls, the book reveals how ugliness has long posed a challenge to aesthetics and taste. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning. Kassandra nakas teaches art history at the institute for art history and aesthetics. Instead, henderson creates a capacious definition of ugliness, demonstrating how the term is constantly under revision as cultural fears and norms shift.
Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Following ugly bodies and dismantling ugly senses across periods and continents, ugliness. In her wideranging and frequently illuminating study, ugliness. Ugliness is not fixed, and is not the opposite of beauty. A cultural history, henderson university of chicago press. The asiapacific journal japan focus volume 14 issue 16 number 3 article id 4940 aug 15, 2016 1 the search for the beautiful woman. Given this definition, a cultural history of the term could easily become a catalog of the grotesque. A cultural history is a provocative book because, while exploring our relationship to that which we brand as ugly or beautiful, gretchen henderson. On beauty edited by umberto eco books the guardian. Henderson ugly as sin, ugly duckling, rear its ugly head. Henderson traces how ugliness moves beyond ugly anomalous individuals and resistant ugly groups to break down borders through ugly senses that place all human beings into an equal camp.