Concrete insight: art, the unconscious and transformative spontaneity

dc.contributor.authorNutting, Catherine M.
dc.contributor.supervisorAntliff, Allan
dc.date.accessioned2007-08-30T18:54:13Z
dc.date.available2007-08-30T18:54:13Z
dc.date.copyright2007en_US
dc.date.issued2007-08-30T18:54:13Z
dc.degree.departmentDept. of History in Arten_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractMy thesis draws connections among Herbert Read’s aesthetics, his anarchism, and Carl Jung’s aesthetic theory. I discuss Jung’s concept of individuation and its importance in his theory of the creative process of life. He distinguished between personalistic and archetypal art, and argued that the latter embodies primordial symbols that are inherently meaningful. Archetypal art, he believed, symbolizes unconscious knowledge, which can promote self-awareness and impact on society, if an individual is able to discern its relevance and integrate this into an ethical lifestyle. Jung emphasized the importance of rational discernment and ethical choices along with free creativity. I show how Read used these Jungian concepts to explain aspects of his aesthetic and political emphasis on freedom. According to Read, art creates reality and as such it is both personally transformative and socially activist: he believed that aesthetics are a mechanism of the natural world, and that art is a unique type of cognition that manifests new forms. Art communicates new versions of reality because perception is holistic, allowing people to perceive both the essence inherent in forms and the relationships among them. Further, I consider Read’s belief that cognition and society are both organic, and should be allowed to evolve naturally. Therefore, according to Read, society must be anarchist so that creative freedom and aesthetic consciousness can be adequately supported. Finally, I conclude by highlighting the pivotal role of creative freedom in Jung’s and Read’s theories of personal and social change. I illustrate that Jung and Read concurred that the unique individual is the site of transformation, living out the organically creative nature of life.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/214
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectCarl Jungen_US
dc.subjectHerbert Readen_US
dc.subjectJungian Aestheticsen_US
dc.subjectEnglish Modernismen_US
dc.subjectArt Theoryen_US
dc.subjectAnarchismen_US
dc.subjectJungian Psychologyen_US
dc.subjectPsychologyen_US
dc.subjectModern Art Theoryen_US
dc.subjectJungian Unconsciousen_US
dc.subjectCreativityen_US
dc.subjectSpontaneityen_US
dc.subjectTransformationen_US
dc.subjectArt Educationen_US
dc.subjectPacifismen_US
dc.subjectPacifist Anarchismen_US
dc.subjectArchetypeen_US
dc.subjectDavid Thistlewooden_US
dc.subjectPaul Gibbarden_US
dc.subjectHerbert Read and Carl Jungen_US
dc.subjectArt and Psychologyen_US
dc.subjectPsychology and Arten_US
dc.subjectArten_US
dc.subjectAnarchism and Arten_US
dc.subject.lcshUVic Subject Index::Humanities and Social Sciencesen_US
dc.titleConcrete insight: art, the unconscious and transformative spontaneityen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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