The Aesthetics and Cultural Studies research group advances interdisciplinary inquiries into the relationship between aesthetics and culture in its many-shaped and multi-medial forms. Gathering senior and junior researchers from the humanities and social sciences at UiB and our sister institutions elsewhere, Aesthetics and Cultural Studies probes the role and meaning of aesthetics in existing and emerging cultural worlds.
New publications:
Asbjørn Grønstad and Øyvind Vågnes. "The River in Reverse: Flood Imaginaries, Old and New". American, British and Canadian Studies Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, 43, no. 1 (2024): 122-135. https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2024-0029
Abstract: In this article, we turn to consider a specific region, and genre, that has spawned its own narrative tradition of environmentally perceptive songlore – the flood chronicles of the Mississippi Delta. Both real and mythological, this area constitutes a fertile source for the evolution of what we propose to call aesthetic imaginaries, and the article demonstrates how a distinct “flood imaginary” resonates through a specific tradition of songwriting, emerging and re-emerging with a set of poetic and musical tropes, serving different artistic purposes across time.