| Home |
 |
Student Resources |
|
Part VI: The Cultural Tradition: Art, the Artist, and society |
|
The previous section of The Conscious Reader explored many areas of popular culture, revealing deeper meanings we can find in the day-to-day activities and products of our society. This section focuses upon one specific area of our culture—its artistic achievements. Though some would suggest that art and artists are separated from their culture and focus only on aesthetics (matters of form, beauty, and universality of themes), the writers in this section make no such distinction. Rather, they explore how art and the artist are situated within a society, as both a member of and a commentator upon it.
As you read, however, you will find there is a common thread that holds these works together. Each of the writers—many of whom are themselves artists—explores in one way or another the contributions of art to our overall culture and the processes by which art is produced and received—the interaction between artist and the wider society. That interaction takes place as we listen to music, read a poem or story, or attempt to bring significance to a lump of clay or block of stone as a sculptor does.
You will likely find many points of view from which you can respond to the pieces included in the section. If you are an artist yourself (and most of you are in one way or another), you may recognize the impulses to create that you yourself have felt. Or, as a music fan or fiction reader, you may recognize some of the facets of artistic creation experienced from the standpoint of an audience. Finally, as a writer—and you are all writers—you may learn more about the production of something new and effective. This act of creation is at the heart of writing as it is at the heart of all artistic creation.
|