Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India

Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India explores how artists express urban feelings through aesthetics, selfhood, and everyday life, highlighting the creative and destructive potential of India's lurch into contemporary capitalism.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 232 pages
\n Publication date: 15 October 2021
\n Publisher: Northwestern University Press
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Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India delves into the transformative journey of a postcolonial city as it undergoes a remarkable metamorphosis into a thriving global metropolis following the liberalization of the Indian economy. Serving as a captivating case study, the book explores how artists across India and beyond have skillfully foregrounded neoliberalism as a pervasive "structure of feeling" that permeates aesthetics, selfhood, and everyday life.

Jisha Menon, the author, skillfully captures the emotional essence of the city through a diverse array of aesthetic projects that evoke a spectrum of urban experiences, including aspiration, panic, and obsolescence. As developers and policymakers reshape the city through ambitious construction projects, urban beautification initiatives, privatization efforts, and other hallmarks of "world-class cities," the urban inhabitants themselves undergo a profound transformation. Nostalgia, narcissism, shame, and the spaces they inhabit and engage with shape their experiences and perspectives.

Menon skillfully sketches out scenes that depict the allure and darker undercurrents of urban aspiration. Through her vivid descriptions, she unravels the intricate connections between local and global power structures, as well as the remarkable capacity of art to absorb and critique the discontents of liberalization. She argues that neoliberalism extends beyond mere economic, social, and political realms; it is, in fact, a profoundly aesthetic project.

In this thought-provoking exploration, Menon challenges the conventional understanding of neoliberalism and reveals its profound impact on the lives and experiences of urban citizens. She emphasizes the need for a nuanced and multi-faceted approach that recognizes the aesthetic dimensions of neoliberal policies and their effects on individuals and communities. Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India serves as a valuable contribution to the field of urban studies, offering insights into the complex interplay between aesthetics, aspiration, and the broader socio-political landscape of contemporary India.

\n Weight: 334g\n
Dimension: 230 x 153 x 18 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780810144057\n \n