The taste of contemporaneity: is the west kitsch?

Journal for Cultural Research 26 (2):166-183 (2022)
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Abstract

As the twenty-first century begins, Benjamin’s aura as the quality of an authentic-art-object might be outdated, but the notion of kitsch remains essential in a post-Warholian world. The following discussion is an attempt to assess Western contemporaneity. By using a few examples, so to dissect problems into their smallest components, I suggest that the current popularity of kitsch inclinations and behaviours in Western societies are not a means to resist cultural and aesthetic elitism, but an implication of widespread bad taste.

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Alberto Castelli
University of Parma

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