Theory & Psychology

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Best, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Theory & Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 4, 505-514 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354307079295
© 2007 SAGE Publications

Special Section: Rethinking Visual Pleasure

Aesthetics and Affect

Susan Best

University of New South Wales, s.best{at}unsw.edu.au

My concern in this article is with how Silvan Tomkins' theory of affects might help us to think about the affective response to art. For my purposes, there are two aspects of his account of affects that are particularly useful. First, Tomkins does not presume that there is a proper object of affect; hence the love of art is not automatically or necessarily about the diversion of libido or the investment of libidinal energy. The second significant factor in Tomkins' account of affects is the way in which he separates and yet entwines the drives, affects and cognition. It is this model of the embodied, feeling, thinking subject which promises to reach what most people seek or expect from the experience of art.

Key Words: aesthetics • art theory • interest and excitement • Tomkins


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?