Aesthetic transgressions

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The debate over aesthetics dates back to the New Criticism and its aftermath. Following the discrediting of its theoretical principles, two factions emerged. Some critics defended aesthetic complexity—embracing ambiguity, irony, and negativity—while rejecting ideology critique's attack on aesthetic autonomy. In contrast, revisionist critics marginalized aesthetic categories, viewing textual features as complicit with the social status quo, and focused on art previously overlooked due to its political or social agendas. Currently, the dialogue between these factions often devolves into mutual accusations of ideological bias. The essays in this collection aim to bridge this divide by reintroducing the notion of aesthetics that has been largely absent from critical discourse in American literature. They emphasize that literary imagination creates a specific social field of meaning and necessitates a particular reader's engagement with language as a tool for shaping reality. Through close readings, the authors examine the cultural and political roles of literature, highlighting both the political implications of literary forms and the varying historical functions that texts serve at the time of their publication and beyond.