This is a past event
Part of the Elphinstone Institute Seminar Series
Engineer and philosopher Abraham Moles has noted that ‘kitsch is essentially an aesthetic system of mass communication.’ Moles speculates that kitsch allows the masses to pass ‘from sentimentality to sensation,’ from mere pleasure to the ‘genuine’ experience of art.
This presentation argues that the communicative power of Catholic kitsch is perhaps better understood through a change in Mole’s proposal where sentimentality, sacramentality, and memory permit kitsch to pass from the passive role of usually material pleasure to the active mental and physical state of genuine devotion. A typology of Catholic kitsch emerging from this discussion will be presented through relevant images.
- Speaker
- Leonard Primiano, Cabrini College
- Venue
- MacRobert Building MR051