The Aesthetic Dimension Of Human Liberation

As it is known, the ultimate concern of Marxism is the freedom and the full development of human beings; in the other words, the fundamental target of Marxism is to achieve the freedom and liberation of human beings. Thus, based on Marx’s idea of human liberation, this article aims to investigate the aspects of political aesthetics of contemporary Western Marxism. Marx’s human liberation not only means maximizing the wealth of society by developing productive forces, or achieving the equity and justice through eliminating classes, but also indicates an aesthetic realization, because people’s creation is based on the aesthetic rules. From Marxist perspective, aesthetics is more than just gaining a random appreciation, but reflects the degrees of freedom and the capacity of creation of human beings, which, on the one hand, relates to the physical reality of sensual life and practice and, on the other hand, points to the extreme circumstance of human liberation. Therefore, aesthetics closely links to the political pursuit of human liberation, which, in turn, indicates that human liberation inevitably embraces an aesthetic dimension. Following this path, the Western Marxists have viewed aesthetics as an important basis for criticizing capitalism since the 20th century, and because of this, their aesthetics can be defined as the politics aesthetics. This political aesthetics of contemporary Western Marxism has been further developed. Fredric Jameson, Terry Eagleton, Antonio Negri, Jacques Ranciere, and among others, as the key representatives of the contemporary Western Marxists, have inherited the tradition of Western Marxist political aesthetics, and at the same time, have been exploring the discourse of political aesthetics beyond capitalism, under the new circumstance of economic globalization and the cultural post-modern shift.Jameson’s concept of "cognitive mapping" inherits the critical tradition of Marxism, and through an in-depth interpretation of contemporary art and cultural phenomenon. He tries to map or represent the overall structure of capitalist globalization by employing new aesthetic forms, which is beyond the cultural logic of late capitalism. His "cognitive mapping" further rebuilds the fragmented postmodern subjects, arouses the long-term forgotten utopianism relights the hope for the future, and explores the possibilities for a new political concept different from the capitalism, in order to open up a road to the human liberation.Intertwining aesthetics, art, and politics, and integrating ideological analysis and political criticism of aesthetic text, Eagleton examines and elucidates the political role of aesthetics from a materialist perspective. Through the theory of literary ideology, aesthetic ideology, and the criticism of postmodernism, Eagleton provides the direction for to achieve an aesthetic life.Negri rethinks the political significance of aesthetics and art in a bio-political context, through combining the issues that are related to art with the historical development of capitalist society and the changes of labor forms. In his opinion, in a bio-political context, the relationship between aesthetics and the capital is "within and against". Art and beauty, within the social production, is bio-political labor that reconstructs labor subjects, and the power that deconstructs the capital.Ranciere’s thought of political aesthetics is not so much about the cross between politics and aesthetics, but the mixture of both. From his perspective, there is aesthetics constructed by the sense experience within the politics, and there is politics dividing the sense experience within the aesthetics. The aesthetics of politics and the politics of aesthetics work together to rearrange the world, to create a new field that can be seen, be talked, be thought, be done, to re-distribute the position, status, and capacity of the members of a community, and to promote freedom liberation of human beings.The political aesthetics of contemporary Western Marxism is the fruit of Marxism that has been shaped and developed by the social and historical changes and the impacts of the currents of thoughts. The globalization of capitalism since the 1960s and the 1970s constitutes its specific historical background and problematic settings. The thoughts on political aesthetics from the four theorists, which has been discussed in this thesis, started with the same theoretical basis, but has developed their own distinctive characteristics, significantly contributing to the research of aesthetics and politics.In conclusion, from the perspective of political aesthetics, politics and aesthetics are closely intertwined, and even move toward one unified whole. The unifying of politics and aesthetics ultimately aims to realize the freedom and full development of human beings —— this is the ultimate ideal of Marxism, and the fundamental pursuit of political aesthetics of contemporary Western Marxism. Human liberation cannot be achieved without its aesthetic dimension!...