A Study on the Problem of the Sublime in the Visual Arts - J.-F. Lyotard's Theory on the Postmodern Sublime -

시각예술에 있어서 숭고(the sublime)의 문제 : 리오타르의 포스트모던 숭고론을 중심으로

This thesis aims to suggest the notion of the sublime as one of the common elements of contemporary plastic arts, as a new key for the reading of our visual environment. The concept of sublimity has been one of important categories in traditional aesthetics since the eighteenth century; beyond the domain of this tradition, however, it is rigorously investigated in sociology, literary criticism, visual art theory and post-structuralist philosophy, especially the investigation of post-modern conditions by Jean-Fran cois Lyotard. Jean-Fran cois Lyotard defines sublimity as the elemental feature of the late twentieth century visual arts based on post-structuralism and suggests the feeling of the sublime as dominant sensibility in post-modern society. According to Lyotard, the sublime is a contradictory feeling of pleasure mixed with suffering as in the theory of experimental avant-gardes; the post-modern sublimity is the feeling of suffering or agony when we feel in confronting the new and the unknown. The investigation of the sublime based on Lyotard's perspectives, therefore, is meaningful in decoding contemporary visual arts. This investigation, therefore, mainly deals with the post-modern concept of the sublime and contemporary visual arts viewed in the sublime.