Abstract/Summary

Four lines of text, shaded in different tones, reveal four perspectives on the relation between art, aesthetics, and politics: 1) Claire Bishop's account of social practice, 2) Theodor W. Adorno's aesthetic theory, 3) Jacques Rancière's theory of the (emancipated) spectator and, 4) excerpts from the 'bestseller' erotic romance novel, Fifty Shades of Grey (2011). The essay is performative. In case you disbelieve in aesthetic cultivation, distrust value judgements, and deny consciousness-raising through art - an aesthetic experience achieved through non-participation and disengagement - I give you erotic romance, at the same time as I give you 'critical' voices on the question of art's relation to culture and society.