| In this work, I map the territory of kitsch aesthetics by critically examining issues of politics, space, and identity. Writings on kitsch have been historically dominated by a phallocentric perception that attempts to create a false binary between art and kitsch. Under this phallocentric framework, kitsch comes to encompass everything that art is not: vile, artificial, vapid, and morally corrupt. Kitsch has thus been persistently labeled art's "other" by critics and experts alike. This work attempts to reconsider kitsch, and its potential as a subversive aestheticism, through a queer lens. In utilizing a queer lens, I aim to provide the reader with a non-dominant reading of kitsch that reassesses the value and potential of kitsch as a form of aesthetics. Ultimately, I argue that an appropriation of kitsch can offer the postmodern subject the unique freedom to fashion themselves comfortably within the margins of hegemonic society. |
