Introduction: “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes
“Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes first appeared in 2003 in New Literary History and offers a critical reflection on the tensions between aesthetics and cultural studies in contemporary literary scholarship. Engaging directly with Elaine Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just, Kacandes challenges the notion that cultural studies has banished beauty from academic discourse, arguing instead that aesthetic considerations remain central—even when they are not explicitly named. Drawing on figures like Antonio Gramsci and Raymond Williams, she asserts that foundational thinkers of cultural studies did not reject aesthetic inquiry but rather sought to situate it within broader historical and ideological frameworks. Kacandes highlights how discussions of beauty are most productive when they interrogate the socio-cultural forces that shape aesthetic judgment. Using case studies from German cultural studies and literary works like Gertrud Kolmar’s A Jewish Mother, she demonstrates how close attention to aesthetic features can reveal complex cultural dynamics, such as trauma, marginalization, and identity. The article is significant in literary theory for reclaiming the value of beauty—not as an isolated, apolitical ideal—but as a historically contingent and culturally meaningful category that enhances, rather than contradicts, the goals of cultural studies. By advocating for integrative approaches that respect both formal analysis and contextual inquiry, Kacandes provides a roadmap for revitalizing the role of literature in the humanities.
Summary of “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes
🎯 1. Challenging Scarry’s Generalizations on Beauty
Kacandes opens her article by critiquing Elaine Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just for making unsupported generalizations about the “banishment of beauty” from academic discourse.
“It’s not only her repetitive passives that obscure the ‘guilty’ party, it’s also the lack of footnotes” (Kacandes, 2003, p. 157).
She argues that although Scarry raises a valid issue—the marginalization of beauty in scholarship—her framing oversimplifies the debate and lacks critical specificity.
🧠 2. Cultural Studies Has Never Truly Banished Aesthetics
Contrary to claims that cultural studies marginalizes beauty, Kacandes asserts that foundational thinkers like Gramsci and Williams deeply engaged with aesthetics.
“All of cultural studies has ultimately been a debate with aesthetics” (Davies, 1995, p. 67).
She cites Gramsci’s acknowledgment that art must be judged both ideologically and aesthetically, and Williams’s rejection of binaries between political and aesthetic responses.
“Williams takes pains to stress corporeal markers of the ‘aesthetic’” (Kacandes, 2003, p. 158).
🌍 3. Embedding Aesthetics in Socio-Historical Context
Kacandes argues that aesthetic experience should be understood through cultural context, not isolated as a purely formal or sensory experience.
“We have to learn to understand the specific elements… which socially and historically determine and signify aesthetic and other situations” (Williams, 1977, p. 157).
She sees this approach as vital to the revitalization of literature teaching.
🎶 4. Aesthetic Judgment as Social Practice: The Mendelssohn Case
Using Celia Applegate’s study on Mendelssohn’s revival of St. Matthew Passion, Kacandes illustrates how aesthetic value is culturally constructed.
“What factors allowed the same piece of music to be transformed… from something ‘strange’ to ‘a true enthusiasm’?” (Kacandes, 2003, p. 160).
This example highlights that aesthetic appreciation is not timeless or universal, but negotiated within historical contexts.
📱 5. Secondary Orality and the Crisis of Literary Value
Kacandes incorporates Walter Ong’s idea of secondary orality to explore why students struggle with reading in a media-saturated world.
“We are not ‘oral’ once again, we are ‘secondary oral’ for the first time” (Kacandes, 2003, p. 162).
She argues that cultural shifts in communication have led to declining literacy and, consequently, diminished literary engagement, a problem that must be addressed pedagogically.
📘 6. Reclaiming the Role of Literature through Cultural Studies
Kacandes defends the teaching of literature in a cultural studies framework that includes aesthetic dimensions.
“What is literature good for and why should students want to learn about it? Insofar as these are genuine questions, I find the answer that ‘literature is beautiful’ to be woefully insufficient” (Kacandes, 2003, p. 163).
She argues that literature’s cultural and emotional functions must be addressed through interdisciplinary, historically grounded analysis.
📖 7. Aesthetic Response and Trauma: The Case of A Jewish Mother
In analyzing Gertrud Kolmar’s A Jewish Mother, Kacandes introduces a dual method: examining both trauma in and as literature.
“The text… fails to tell the story by eliding, repeating, and fragmenting components of it” (Kacandes, 2003, p. 169).
She highlights how ellipses and stylistic inconsistency evoke trauma: “The ellipses mark the space to which… ‘willed access is denied’” (Caruth, 1995, p. 152).
💡 8. Beyond Beauty: Cultural Studies as Witnessing
Kacandes argues for a complex form of cultural analysis that recognizes aesthetic features as entry points into societal critique and memory work.
“We, as readers, are witnesses who have a moral obligation to try to understand how… individuals have tried to ‘respond to the state of the world and attempt to act on it’” (Paulson, 2001, p. 119).
Her conclusion insists that aesthetic categories like “beauty” are not ends in themselves but tools to interrogate power, trauma, and identity.
Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes
| 🧠 Theoretical Term & Symbol | 📖 Explanation & Usage in the Article |
| 📚 Cultural Studies | An interdisciplinary approach to cultural production and power. Kacandes argues it has not banished beauty or aesthetics but often engages with them deeply, especially in its origins and through figures like Gramsci and Williams (p. 157–158). |
| 🎨 Aesthetics | Refers to notions of beauty and artistic value. Kacandes critiques simplistic appeals to beauty and calls for nuanced readings that combine aesthetic judgment with cultural critique (p. 158–160). |
| 🔊 Secondary Orality | Ong’s concept describing a return to speech-dominance in an age of media. Kacandes uses it to explain the challenges to literacy and literature in today’s hybrid oral-textual culture (p. 162). |
| 🗣️ Narrated Monologue | A narrative device that blends character thought with third-person narration. In Kolmar’s novel, this form complicates interpretation and reflects internal trauma and ambiguity (p. 165–166). |
| 💥 Trauma Theory | A way of understanding how literature can depict or perform unrepresentable suffering. Kacandes reads textual gaps in A Jewish Mother as mimicking trauma and engaging readers as witnesses (p. 169). |
| 🛠️ Instrumentalization of Art | The use of art for social or political ends. Kacandes shows how Kolmar’s unpublished novel functions as cultural work, bearing witness to Weimar anxieties and ideologies (p. 170). |
| 🧩 Ideology | Systemic beliefs shaping perception and text. Cultural studies and theorists like Gramsci viewed literature as always ideologically loaded—never neutral, never purely aesthetic (p. 157–158). |
| 💔 Kitsch | Overused or clichéd artistic forms. Kacandes examines how Kolmar’s stylized sentimentality and melodrama may act as cultural signals, intentionally drawing in or resisting certain aesthetic responses (p. 165). |
Contribution of “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes to Literary Theory/Theories
🎨 1. Aesthetic Theory
- Kacandes reclaims aesthetics within literary theory by challenging the binary of “aesthetic vs. political” in academic debates.
- She argues that beauty has not been “banished” by cultural studies, contrary to Elaine Scarry’s claim (Scarry 1999: 57), but is alive through nuanced discussions of form and feeling.
- ✍️ “It is an intellectual disservice to set up scapegoats… I will offer my own version of evidence that ‘beauty’ and aesthetics have not been banished by cultural studies” (p. 157).
🧩 2. Ideology and Marxist Literary Criticism
- She aligns with Gramsci and Raymond Williams in asserting that literature is always situated within ideological and historical contexts.
- Cultural studies, she insists, is not anti-aesthetic, but deeply rooted in Marxist critique where “aesthetic judgment and ideological awareness coexist” (p. 158).
- 🧠 “Gramsci insisted that it was possible to appreciate the aesthetic merits… even while repudiating the ideology that informs it” (p. 157).
🧠 3. Cultural Studies
- Kacandes extends cultural studies’ role in literary theory by emphasizing that formal and aesthetic elements are not excluded but central to meaningful cultural critique.
- She uses Applegate’s analysis of Mendelssohn’s revival to show how aesthetic judgment is shaped by social and historical forces (p. 159–160).
- 📍 “To understand [beauty], one must investigate what ‘beauty,’ ‘truth,’ ‘goodness’ meant in a specific culture and time” (p. 160).
🔊 4. Orality and Literacy (Ong’s Media Theory)
- Introduces Walter Ong’s theory of secondary orality to literary pedagogy, linking media changes to changing relationships with reading and literature.
- She contextualizes the decline in reading as a structural shift in how we communicate—“we are not oral again; we are ‘secondary oral’ for the first time” (p. 162).
- 💬 This challenges literary theory to consider media environment and cognitive shifts caused by technology in analyzing texts.
💥 5. Trauma Theory
- Kacandes contributes by showing how literature can not only depict trauma but also perform trauma, especially through narrative ellipses, fragmentation, and gaps.
- Analyzing Kolmar’s A Jewish Mother, she claims the text itself enacts trauma, compelling readers to “witness” rather than resolve the trauma (p. 169).
- 🕳️ “The ellipses mark the space to which, as trauma theory puts it, ‘willed access is denied’” (p. 169).
🗣️ 6. Narratology (Narrated Monologue & Perspective)
- Through free indirect discourse in Kolmar’s novel, Kacandes explores how perspective complicates emotional and aesthetic responses.
- This aligns with narratological approaches that examine how literary voice mediates subjectivity and ambiguity.
- 🔄 “Kolmar’s extensive use of narrated monologue makes it hard to determine what position the text itself is taking” (p. 165).
💔 7. Kitsch and Sentimentality in Literature
- Kacandes provocatively rehabilitates kitsch, suggesting it can be read not as aesthetic failure, but as a deliberate signal to provoke cultural reflection.
- She urges readers to go beyond judging art as good/bad and instead ask what work it does within a cultural system (p. 166).
- 🎭 “This kind of language ultimately led me to decide that there were numerous aesthetic clues – teasers – that could draw one in” (p. 165).
🛠️ 8. Literary Value and Ethics
- Finally, Kacandes proposes a moral obligation in literary studies: to serve as witnesses to literature’s role in recording and resisting social trauma and exclusion.
- She frames literary reading as a cultural and ethical practice, not just aesthetic or academic.
- 🌍 “We, as readers, are witnesses who have a moral obligation to try to understand how individuals have tried to ‘respond to the state of the world’” (p. 170).
Examples of Critiques Through “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes
| 📚 Literary Work | 🧠 Type of Critique | 💡 Insights from Kacandes |
| 📘 Gertrud Kolmar’s A Jewish Mother | 🎭 Trauma theory, aesthetic ambiguity, narrated monologue, cultural marginalization | 🔍 Shows how the novel enacts trauma through ellipses and fragmentation; critiques Weimar-era ideologies of gender, race, and motherhood; challenges simple notions of “bad” or “kitsch” literature by tying aesthetics to cultural critique. |
| 📗 Elaine Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just | 🧾 Rhetorical critique of generalization and lack of citation | ❗Criticizes Scarry’s vagueness and her creation of unnamed enemies; argues beauty was not “banished” but needs historicized conversation; urges more grounded discourse in literary theory. |
| 📕 Raymond Williams’s Marxism and Literature | ⚙️ Socio-aesthetic integration, rejection of binaries | 🧩 Endorses Williams’s call to examine literature within the “full social material process”; supports idea that aesthetics and ideology are not oppositional but intertwined in cultural expression. |
| 🎼 Mendelssohn’s Revival of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (via Celia Applegate) | 🏛️ Historical-cultural aesthetic analysis | 📣 Uses the revival to show how perceptions of “beauty” emerge from institutional, cultural, and ideological forces; demonstrates how aesthetic value is socially produced and politically meaningful. |
Criticism Against “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes
- ❓ Ambiguity in Theoretical Position
While Kacandes critiques binary thinking between aesthetics and cultural studies, she occasionally blurs her own stance—oscillating between defending aesthetics and prioritizing cultural critique without clearly resolving the tension. - 📚 Overreliance on a Single Case Study
Her detailed focus on A Jewish Mother by Gertrud Kolmar, though powerful, may limit the generalizability of her broader claims about aesthetics and cultural studies. - 🧩 Complexity for Non-Specialists
The article assumes a high level of familiarity with cultural studies, literary theory, and trauma theory, potentially alienating readers not already versed in these domains. - 🗣️ Underspecification of “Beauty”
Kacandes critiques others (like Scarry) for vagueness but does not herself fully define what she means by “beauty” or how it should be engaged critically, leaving the concept abstract. - 🔄 Circling Without Concluding
Some arguments feel recursive, particularly in her analysis of trauma and aesthetic response, which she admits cannot offer final conclusions—raising the question of theoretical payoff. - 🇺🇸 U.S.-centric Cultural Focus
Although Kacandes gestures toward the importance of German cultural studies, the critique of U.S. Anglocentrism in cultural studies feels only partially addressed and not deeply developed. - ⏳ Minimal Engagement with Contemporary Aesthetic Theory
The essay could be seen as under-representing recent developments in aesthetic theory, such as affect studies, neuroaesthetics, or postdigital aesthetics, which might enrich her claims. - 🧪 Empirical Gaps in Pedagogical Claims
Her anecdotes about student literacy and reading habits are powerful but not backed by empirical data, which may weaken her argument about the current state of literary education.
Representative Quotations from “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes with Explanation
| 🎯 Quotation | 📘 Explanation |
| “The banishing of beauty from the humanities… has been carried out by a set of political complaints against it… I mean something much more modest: that conversation about the beauty of these things has been banished.” (quoting Scarry, p. 57) | 🎭 Kacandes critiques Scarry’s rhetorical style and lack of specificity, noting the danger of vague accusations and calling for more grounded and evidence-based discussion of beauty. |
| “It is an intellectual disservice to set up scapegoats or bogeymen so that the author and her argument can look good.” | 🧠 This is a foundational critique in Kacandes’s essay—challenging the strawman arguments often found in aesthetic debates. |
| “All of cultural studies has ultimately been a debate with aesthetics.” (Davies 1995: 67) | 🔄 Kacandes uses this quote to refute the idea that cultural studies is anti-aesthetic, suggesting instead that it engages deeply with questions of artistic value. |
| “Gramsci insisted… it was possible to appreciate the aesthetic merits of a literary work even while repudiating the ideology that informs it.” | ⚖️ Shows how Gramsci serves as a model for integrating ideological and aesthetic criticism—a key theoretical anchor in Kacandes’s argument. |
| “If we are asked to believe that all literature is ‘ideology’… or that all literature is ‘aesthetic’… we may stay a little longer but will still in the end turn away.” (Williams 1977: 155) | 🔍 This Williams quote supports Kacandes’s advocacy for a spectrum of literary intention, not rigid binaries. |
| “A cultural studies approach need not—indeed must not—ignore the aesthetic dimension of cultural production.” | 💡 Kacandes affirms that aesthetics must remain central in cultural analysis, countering the idea that cultural studies dilutes artistic value. |
| “Avoiding both instrumental reductionism and aesthetic formalism… I hope to speak… of music’s general representational or ideational function.” (Applegate, 1997: 152–3) | 🎼 Applegate’s method becomes a model for Kacandes—using cultural studies to explore how beauty functions socially and historically. |
| “We are not ‘oral’ once again, we are ‘secondary oral’ for the first time.” | 🗣️ Introduces Ong’s concept of “secondary orality,” which Kacandes uses to explore changing modes of literacy and their implications for literature. |
| “Questioning the value of literature may be a kind of defensive cover for those whose literacy skills are simply not strong enough to get pleasure from written work.” | 📉 Kacandes suggests that illiteracy—not just theoretical critique—is partly behind the decline in aesthetic engagement with literature. |
| “I have used my emotional reactions to and aesthetic judgments of the novel to develop some reading strategies.” | ❤️ Shows how Kacandes values subjective, affective response as part of academic reading—merging aesthetics and critical interpretation. |
Suggested Readings: “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies” by Irene Kacandes
- Zhang, Yehong, and Gerhard Lauer. “Introduction: Cross-Cultural Reading.” Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 54, no. 4, 2017, pp. 693–701. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.54.4.0693. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.
- Ning, Wang. “Comparative Literature and Globalism: A Chinese Cultural and Literary Strategy.” Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 41, no. 4, 2004, pp. 584–602. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40247451. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.
- ARENS, KATHERINE. “When Comparative Literature Becomes Cultural Studies: Teaching Cultures through Genre.” The Comparatist, vol. 29, 2005, pp. 123–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26237106. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.
- Kacandes, Irene. “Beauty on My Mind: Reading Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies.” The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies (2005): 156-174.