Pleasure
and Aesthetic Experience from the Perspective of Neuroaesthetics

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2021, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3): 104-112.

• Western Literary Theory • Previous Articles Next Articles

Pleasure and Aesthetic Experience from the Perspective of Neuroaesthetics

Hu Jun

Center of Thought and Culture, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Online:2021-05-25 Published:2021-05-11
About author:Hu Jun, Ph.D., is an associate researcher at the Center of Thought and Culture, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Her research interests are neuroaesthetics and literary theory.
Supported by:
This article is supported by the National Social Sciences Foundation (20BZW028).

Abstract

Abstract: The study of the relationship between cognition and emotion in the common aesthetic mechanism of human brain is subject to debates. Oshin Vartanian, among others, suggests that cognition and emotion play an equally important role in the aesthetic process. He brings the concept of “pleasure” to the forefront in aesthetic experience and attempts to build a theoretical framework of neuroaesthetics that can link the study of emotion and that of cognition. Based on the aesthetic experience processing patterns, the emotional experience theory, as well as aesthetic experiential cases, Vartanian speculates and illustrates how “pleasure” plays a role in aesthetic experience. “Pleasure” links cognitive and emotional functions in aesthetic appreciation, which jointly drive the aesthetic experience and aesthetic judgment in human brain. The theory of aesthetic pleasure has also informed new interpretations from the perspective of neuroaesthetics about such fundamental questions as beauty and the sublime, aesthetic feeling and pleasure, aesthetic purification, and aesthetic common sense.

Key words: pleasure; aesthetic experience, emotion, cognition

Hu Jun. Pleasure and Aesthetic Experience from the Perspective of Neuroaesthetics[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2021, 41(3): 104-112.

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Pleasure and Aesthetic Experience from the Perspective of Neuroaesthetics

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