Defying the News: New Aesthetics of “Truth” in Popular Culture

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aesthetics manifest a rationally ambiguous category of meaning that encompasses both relational and representational dimensions of communication.  In this paper, I argue that (1) truth-claims have ontological consequences bound in the social commitments and obligations generated through expressive choices and interpellated audiences; (2) ontological implications entangle discourses of “truth” in the constitution of knowledge in ways that extend beyond rational argumentation into aesthetic experience; and (3) a reinterpretation of Kantian aesthetics offers a framework for understanding how aesthetic experiences influence the organization of relations of power.