Bodies, Power and Difference: Representations of the East-West Divide in the Comparative Study of Indian Aesthetics

The paper attempts to raise certain methodological issues concerning the study of Indian aesthetics. It seeks to draw attention to the need for conceptual rigor in the usage of related terms derived from western aesthetics through a critique of the comparative method in the study of Indian aesthetic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFilozofski vestnik Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 205 - 220
Main Author Dave-Mukherji, Parul
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.01.2002
Subjects
Aesthetics
Colonialism
Comparative Analysis
Dualism
East and West
India
Theoretical Problems
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Summary:The paper attempts to raise certain methodological issues concerning the study of Indian aesthetics. It seeks to draw attention to the need for conceptual rigor in the usage of related terms derived from western aesthetics through a critique of the comparative method in the study of Indian aesthetics. In particular, this method, predicated upon a certain binarism (east/west, culture/nature, practice/theory), offers a disciplinary coherence to comparative aesthetics even as it renders it open to criticism. Body as a central trope gets caught up in the polemics concerning the representation of Indian art & philosophy, either as a marker of difference or sameness, in relation to western art & philosophy. It underlines the importance of contextualizing aesthetics in its emergence as a discipline within a specific intellectual history of the West & of understanding the circumstances of its entry into the non-West under the aegis of colonialism. 17 References. Adapted from the source document.
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ISSN:0353-4510