0
Catttt Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

Refuse to rise above

1. Does "where the desublimatory trajectory of the body was probed to challenge orthodox categories" mean "in surrealism the body was represented as a non-sublime (earthly) entity and in strange forms and positions"?


2. Does "who refused to rise above big toes, mere matter, sheer s.h.i.t, to raise the low to the high" mean "Bataille's work was limited to big toes, mere matter, sheer s.h.i.t, and describing the low things as sublime things"?


3. Does "Breton was a juvenile victim" mean "Breton was deeply concerned with infantile psychology"?


4. Does "Icarian pose" mean "he was a high-flying man"?


5. Does "assumed less to undo the law than to provoke its punishment" mean "Bataille believed that breaking the law is less important than its punishment"?



Context:

A number of artists’ work at this time, from Andres Serrano to Rona Pondick, engaged in a discourse of bodily fluids, which caused questions to be asked about the historical effectivity of such work. The contrast between these two artists evokes somewhat the contrast art historian Hal Foster makes between the Surrealism of André Breton, artist and writer, and philosopher Georges Bataille, Surrealism being an historical precedent of abject art where the desublimatory trajectory of the body was probed to challenge orthodox categories. According to Foster, Breton thought that ‘Bataille was an “excrement-philosopher” who refused to rise above big toes, mere matter, sheer s.h.i.t, to raise the low to the high. For Bataille, Breton was a “juvenile victim” involved in an Oedipal game, an “Icarian poseassumed less to undo the law than to provoke its punishment.’ Foster elaborates Surrealism as pivoting on these dichotomies of pure filth and acting dirty.

  
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

0 Answers

Related Questions