Aesthetic studies have traditionally been confined to the analysis of art and beauty. This book analyzes common situations in contexts such as the family, school, religion, medical and funerary traditions to detect the aesthetic strategies by which these practices acquire significance. List of Tables x Glossary xi Preface xv Acknowledgement xviii PART 1 THE LABYRINTHS OF AESTHETICS 1(42) The Problems of Aesthetics 3(4) Problems of definition 3(1) Problems of location 3(2) Problems of distinction 5(2) The Fetishes of Aesthetics 7(8) The fetish of beauty 7(1) The fetish of the artwork 8(2) The fetish of the aesthetic object 10(5) The Myths of Aesthetics 15(22) The myth of the opposition art/reality and aesthetics/everyday life 15(2) The myth of aesthetic disinterest 17(2) The myth of aesthetic distance 19(3) The myth of the aesthetic attitude 22(2) The myth of aesthetic aspects or qualities 24(2) The myth of the universality of beauty 26(1) The myth of the opposition between the aesthetic and the intellectual 27(2) The myth of the synonymity of art and aesthetics 29(1) The myth of the aesthetic potentiality of artworks 30(1) The myth of the aesthetic experience 31(6) The Fears of Aesthetics 37(6) The fear of the undesirable 37(1) The fear of everyday impurities 38(1) The fear of psychologism 39(1) The fear of the immoral 40(3) PART 2 ON AESTHESIS 43(30) Demarcating Aesthetics 45(8) A genealogical perspective for a bio-aesthetics 47(2) Bio-aesthetics 49(1) Socio-aesthetics 50(3) Basic Categories for Aesthetic Analysis 53(8) Aesthetic subject and aesthetic object 53(2) Objectivity, objectuality, and objectivation 55(2) Subjectivity, individuality, identity, role 57(4) Conditions of Possibility of Aesthesis: The A Priori 61(6) Space-time 61(1) The body 62(1) Vital energy 63(1) Cultural conventions 64(3) The Phenomenology of Aesthesis: Aesthetic Latching-On and Latched-By 67(6) PART 3 TOWARDS PROSAICS 73(28) Prosaics and panaestheticism 73(2) Prosaics and Poetics 75(6) Poesics and prosics 79(2) The Tangents of Prosaics 81(6) The Nutrients of Prosaics 87(6) Mikhail Bakhtin 87(1) John Dewey 88(2) Johan Huizinga 90(3) The Play of Culture 93(4) Categorization of games by Caillois 94(3) The Horizons of Prosaics 97(4) PART 4 SEMIO-AESTHETICS 101(34) Semio-aesthetics and aesthesio-semiotics 101(4) Thresholds of Semiotic Perception: Sensation, Discernment and Regard 105(4) The Axis of the Signic 109(6) Signifier 111(1) Signified 112(3) The Axis of the Symbolic 115(4) Comparative View of Both Axes: The Symbolic and the Signic 119(6) The Non-Axis of the Obtuse 125(2) Beyond Semiosis to Aesthesis 127(4) Aesthetic Enunciation and its Dialogical Character 131(4) Aesthetic syntagm and paradigm 133(2) PART 5 OCTADIC MODEL FOR AESTHETIC ANALYSIS 135(42) The projection of the semiotic axes to the aesthetic 136(3) Rhetoric and its Registers 139(10) Lexic register 142(1) Acoustic register 143(1) Somatic register 144(2) Scopic register 146(3) Dramatics and its Modalities 149(6) Proxemics 149(2) Kinetics 151(1) Emphatics 152(1) Fluxion 152(3) The Rhetoric-Dramatic Coupling 155(14) Lexic proxemics 155(1) Acoustic proxemics 156(1) Somatic proxemics 156(1) Scopic proxemics 157(1) Lexic kinetics 157(1) Acoustic kinetics 158(1) Somatic kinetics 158(1) Scopic kinetics 158(1) Lexic emphatics 159(1) Acoustic emphatics 160(1) Somatic emphatics 161(1) Scopic emphatics 161(1) Lexic fluxion 162(1) Acoustic fluxion 163(1) Somatic fluxion 164(1) Scopic fluxion 164(5) Con-Formations of the Rhetoric-Dramatic Coupling 169(8) Heteroglossia 170(2) Polyphony 172(1) Hybridization 173(1) Ex-pression, im-pression, com-pression, de-pression 173(4) PART 6 MATRIXES AND IDENTITIES 177(118) The Matrixes: A General Approach 179(6) Matrixes and paradigms 182(3) Diachronic and Synchronic Perspective of Cultural Matrixes 185(10) Diachronic perspective of the matrixes 186(1) Synchronic perspective of the matrixes 187(8) The Family Matrix 195(10) The registers of rhetorics in the family matrix 196(2) The modalities of the dramatic in the family matrix 198(1) Family proxemics 198(1) Family kinetics 199(1) Family emphatics 200(1) Family fluxion 201(2) Paradigmatic projections in the family matrix 203(2) The Religion Matrix 205(32) Judaic religious matrix 207(6) Christian religious matrix 213(6) Islamic religious matrix 219(7) A parallel approach to dramatics in the religious matrix 226(7) Religious fluxion 233(1) Final considerations of the religious matrix 234(1) Paradigmatic projection of and in the religious matrix 235(2) The School Matrix 237(10) School rhetorics 238(1) School dramatics 239(7) Paradigmatic projection of the school matrix 246(1) The Medical Matrix 247(10) Medical rhetorics 247(3) Medical dramatics 250(2) Medical emphatics 252(3) Paradigmatic projection in and from the medical matrix 255(2) The Occultist Matrix 257(12) Occultist rhetorics 258(3) Occultist dramatics 261(5) Paradigmatic projection in the occultist matrix 266(3) The Arts Matrix 269(26) The registers of the rhetoric in the artistic matrix 273(10) Modalities of artistic dramatics 283(10) Paradigm projections related to the artistic matrix 293(2) Conclusions Matricial Symbols and Aesthetic Games 295(6) References 301(12) Index 313