Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art: An Essay on Transgression and Censorship

Abstract

The purpose of this interdisciplinary article is to query, and reflect on, the construction of discourse and meaning in the field of art, focusing on the questions of transgression and censorship. This article attempts to construct understanding, starting with knowledge from the disciplines of philosophy, aesthetics, and art, with aid from semiotics as well. The censoring of the art exhibition Queermuseu: cartografias da diferença na arte brasileira demonstrates an iconoclastic tendency in the field of culture, and successive occurrences of censorship lead us to question this process. The theme of transgression and of normalization, both identified here via the expression of the body in its nudeness, eroticisim, and sexual taboo, corroborates the historical comprehension of a process between disruptions and censorship, resulting in the tensioning and construction of a symbolic field in the making. For a theoretical lens, I draw from post-structuralist philosophical studies, from which I define art aesthetics and criticism.