The sociocultural triggers that affect and regulate the
working of art and literature in contemporary society have undergone rapid
changes over the years. Today, the acceptance and appreciation of literature or
any other art form defy common perceptions, parameters, and theoretical
interpretations put forth by literary or art critics through their ways of
analysis. The self-styled interpreters and value judges of literature or art
who have their own theories to hold onto believe that literary appreciation is
equivalent to extracting aesthetic lessons from texts or art forms based on
established practices. Thus, the recognition and understanding of the
content-bearing media, literary devices, critical commentaries, and value
judgements by the art critics are believed to precede literary appreciation.
However, with poststructuralism and postmodernism slowly drifting away, a
wilful rejection of grand narratives has assertively brought in pluralist,
reflexive, and pastiche cultures of literary and art appreciation modes. All
this has led to a kind of cultural sensibility that oscillates between,
synthesises, and transcends the logics of modernism and postmodernism.
Thus, the objective of this study is to analyse how
technological advances and cultural shifts have altered the way people look
upon and appreciate literature and art. The technological advances have recast
the nature and scope of life on this planet in a surprisingly brief period of
time. Alongside developed a new culture of literary or art appreciation was
developed that was more vicarious than participatory. An array of new
possibilities offered by the virtual world has also added to this visible shift
in the contemporary approaches to the appreciation of art and literature.
The common assumption is that literature springs from
spontaneous, imaginative streaks of genius that demand reflection and analysis
to extract its essence, leading to delight. However, the sights and sounds
emanating from the sites of performances and the scenes of entertainment make
us think otherwise. There are instances that reiterate the role of the epidemic
frenzy chiefly perpetuated by the visual media and internet social network
groups. When entertainment becomes visualised and vicarious, frenzy develops
from the impulsive outbursts of the mind submerged in virtual reality. There is
entertainment even in those events and emotions that are capable of generating
crude excitement. There used to be a time when art and literature offered
soothing tranquillity to troubled minds, but now it is the frenzied mind that
sets the norms of excellence in addition to its blatant indulgence in meanness
and crudity. The study, therefore, tries to establish that the virtual
media-driven frenzy is systematically displacing traditional reflective and
critical analysis as the dominant mode of literary appreciation, raising
questions about the future of critical engagement with art and literature.
People these days move on rapidly, leaving behind the
objects that entertain them. They never pause to have a closer look, nor do
they reflect on the objects that captured their attention or imagination. How
can, then, their appreciation and ways of entertainment exhibit deep levels of
thinking solidly backed up by theories and ideologies? Thus, appreciation
becomes highly relative to individual sensitivity and impulsive, attitudinal
responses that abruptly erupt with the assistance of viral marketing or by the
manipulation of public sentiments in social media circles. Literary or art
appreciation, therefore, shows the impact of impulsive impressions rather than
a premeditated or aesthetically fine-tuned sensibility obtained from works of
art. The post-modern reader or spectator keeps contemporary literature away
from its formative function of helping man to perfect his rational essence by
refining or reforming his sensibilities. On the other hand, his mode of
appreciation inverts its stature to bury its intrinsic value under the floating
façade of vicarious entertainment. Hence, the observable form of the exposition
on the nature of appreciation is the absence of any stable formative basis.
Author(s) Details
Savio James V.
Mary Matha Arts & Science College, Vemom, P O Mananthavady, 670 645,
Wayanad (Dist), Kerala, India.
Please see the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/lleru/v9/6515
