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Exoticism
Exoticism (from ''exotic'') is the style or traits considered characteristic of a distant foreign country. In art and design it is a trend where creators become fascinated with ideas and styles from distant regions and draw inspiration from them. This often involves surrounding foreign cultures with mystique and fantasy which owe more to the culture of the people doing the exoticism than to the exotic cultures themselves: this process of glamorisation and stereotyping is called "exoticisation". In a colonial context, it is the romanticisation or fetishisation of ethnic, racial, or cultural others, where the group is marked by difference. History of exoticism The word ''exotic'' is rooted in the Greek word 'outside' and means, literally, 'from outside'. It was coined during Europe's Age of Discovery, when "outside" seemed to grow larger each day, as Western ships sailed the world and dropped anchor off other continents. The first definition of ''exotic'' in most modern dictiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orientalism
In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle East, was one of the many specialties of 19th-century academic art, and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes. Since the publication of Edward Said's ''Orientalism (book), Orientalism'' in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term 'Orientalism' to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, 'the West' Essentialism, essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in the service of Imperialism, imperial power. Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinoiserie
(, ; loanword from French '' chinoiserie'', from '' chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other Sinosphere artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, literature, theatre, and music. The aesthetic of chinoiserie has been expressed in different ways depending on the region. It is related to the broader current of Orientalism, which studied Far East cultures from a historical, philological, anthropological, philosophical, and religious point of view. First appearing in the 17th century, this trend was popularized in the 18th century due to the rise in trade with China (during the High Qing era) and the rest of East Asia. As a style, chinoiserie is related to the Rococo style. Both styles are characterized by exuberant decoration, asymmetry, a focus on materials, and stylized nature and subject matter that focuses on leisure and pleasure. Chinoiserie focuses on subjects that were thought by Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primitivism
In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism proposes that the people of a primitive society possess a morality and an ethics that are superior to the urban value system of civilized people. In European art, the aesthetics of primitivism included techniques, motifs, and styles copied from the arts of Asian, African, and Australasian peoples perceived as primitive in relation to the urban civilization of Western Europe. In that light, the painter Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian imagery to his oil paintings was a characteristic borrowing of technique, motif, and style that was important for the development of Modern art (1860s–1970s) in the late 19th century. As a genre of Western art, Primitivism reproduced and perpetuated racist stereotypes, such as the " noble savage", wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alden Jones
Alden Jones (born 1972) is an American writer and educator. She is the author of memoirs ''The Wanting Was a Wilderness'' (2020) and ''The Blind Masseuse'' (2013) and the short story collection ''Unaccompanied Minors'' (2014). ''The Blind Masseuse'' was longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogal Award for the Art of the Essay. Life Jones was born in New York City and raised in Montclair, New Jersey. Her mother is a publicist and her father is renowned golf course architect Rees Jones. She graduated from Brown University, where she studied fiction under Edmund White, and received master’s degrees from Bennington College and New York University, where she was a University Fellow in fiction. Jones has traveled extensively as an educator, including as a visiting professor on Semester at Sea, as the director of several programs in Cuba and as a Cuban Culture Expert on Royal Caribbean Cruises, and for a year in Costa Rica as a volunteer elementary school English teacher for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Objectification
In social philosophy, objectification is the act of treating a person as an object or a thing. Sexual objectification, the act of treating a person as a mere object of sexual desire, is a subset of objectification, as is self-objectification, the objectification of one's self. In Marxism, the objectification of social relationships is discussed as " reification". Definitions According to Martha Nussbaum, a person is objectified if one or more of the following properties are applied to them: # Instrumentality – treating the person as a tool for another's purposes # Denial of autonomy – treating the person as lacking in autonomy or self-determination # Inertness – treating the person as lacking in agency or activity # Fungibility – treating the person as interchangeable with (other) objects # Violability – treating the person as lacking in boundary integrity and violable, "as something that it is permissible to break up, smash, break into." # Ownership – treating t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism also may be used to occupy one's self away from persistent feelings of depression or general sadness. Perceptions Entire industries have sprung up to foster a growing tendency of people to remove themselves from the rigors of daily life – especially into the digital world. Many activities that are normal parts of a healthy existence (e.g., eating, sleeping, exercise, sexual activity) can also become avenues of escapism when taken to extremes or out of proper context; and as a result the word "escapism" often carries a negative connotation, suggesting that escapists are unhappy, with an inability or unwillingness to connect meaningfully with the world and to take necessary action. Indeed, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defined escapism as "The tendency to seek, or the practice of seeking, distraction from what normally has to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Other (philosophy)
In philosophy, the Other is a fundamental concept referring to anyone or anything perceived as distinct or different from oneself. This distinction is crucial for understanding how individuals construct their own identities, as the encounter with "otherness" helps define the boundaries of the "self."''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'' (1995) p. 673. In Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, the Other plays a particularly important role in this self-formation, acting as a kind of mirror against which the self is reflected and understood. The Other is not simply a neutral observer but an active participant in shaping the individual's self-image. This includes the idea of the "Constitutive Other," which refers to the internal relationship between a person's essential nature (personality) and their physical embodiment (body), reflecting the interplay of internal differences within the self. Beyond this individual level, the concept of "the Other" extends to broader social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orientalism (book)
''Orientalism'' is a 1978 book by Edward Said, in which he establishes the term "Orientalism" as a critical concept to describe the Western world's commonly contemptuous depiction and portrayal of the Eastern world—that is, the Orient. Societies and peoples of the Orient are those who inhabit regions throughout Asia and North Africa. Said argues that Orientalism, in the sense of the Western scholarship about the Eastern world, is inextricably tied to the imperialist societies that produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power. According to Said, in the Middle East, the social, economic, and cultural practices of the ruling Arab elites indicate they are imperial satraps who have internalized a romanticized version of Arab culture created by French and British (and later, American) Orientalists. Examples used in the book include critical analyses of the colonial literature of Joseph Conrad, which conflates a people, a time, and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-colonial studies.Robert Young, ''White Mythologies: Writing History and the West'', New York & London: Routledge, 1990. As a cultural critic, Said is best known for his book ''Orientalism (book), Orientalism'' (1978), a foundational text which critiques the Representation (arts), cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism—how the Western world perceives the Orient. His model of textual analysis transformed the academic discourse of researchers in literary theory, literary criticism, and Middle Eastern studies.Stephen Howe"Dangerous mind?" ''New Humanist'', Vol. 123, November/December 2008. Born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, in 1935, Said was a Citizenship of the United States, United States citizen by way of his father ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venus Of Urbino
The ''Venus of Urbino'' (also known as ''Reclining Venus'') is an oil painting by Italian painter Titian, depicting a nude young woman, traditionally identified with the goddess Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. Work on the painting seems to have begun anywhere from 1532 or 1534, and was perhaps completed in 1534, but not sold until 1538. It is currently held in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. The figure's pose is based on the '' Dresden Venus'', traditionally attributed to Giorgione but for which Titian completed at least the landscape. In his own painting, Titian has moved Venus to an indoor setting, engaged her with the viewer, and made her sensuality explicit; some even believe the figure is engaging in masturbation. Interpretations of the painting fall into two groups; both agree that the painting has a powerful erotic charge, but beyond that, it is seen either as a portrait of a courtesan, perhaps Zaffetta, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of colour, exerted a profound influence not only on painters of the late Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Art of Europe, Western artists. His career was successful from the start, and he became sought after by patrons, initially from Venice and its possessions, then joined by the north Italian princes, and finally the Habsburgs and the papacy. Along with Giorgione, he is considered a founder of the Venetian school of Italian Renaissance painting. In 1590, the painter and art theorist Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo describe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olympia (Manet)
''Olympia'' is an 1863 oil painting by Édouard Manet, depicting a nude white woman ("Olympia") lying on a bed being attended to by a black maid. The French government acquired the painting in 1890 after a public subscription organized by Claude Monet. The painting is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. The figure of Olympia was modeled by Victorine Meurent, and that of her servant by Laure (art model), Laure. Olympia's confrontational gaze caused shock and controversy when the painting was first exhibited at the 1865 Salon (Paris), Paris Salon, especially because a number of details in the picture identified her as a Prostitution, prostitute. The title of the painting is generally attributed to Manet's close friend Zacharie Astruc, an art critic and artist, since an excerpt from one of Astruc's poems was included in the catalogue entry along with ''Olympia'' when it was first exhibited in 1865. Content Contemporary audiences were shocked by Olympia's confrontational gaze, combi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
