Theories of Ugliness: An Unseemly Aesthetic History (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781350425590)

Why has our preoccupation with concepts, standards, and theories of the beautiful not resulted in a correspondingly comprehensive theoretical treatment of the ugly? Theories of Ugliness remedies this by gathering and scrutinising ideas of the ugly and unsightly from across the history of Western aesthetic and philosophical writing.

Taking in ancient, medieval and early modern concepts, all the way through to more recent Anglo-American conceptions, this book reveals the extraordinary preoccupation with ugliness exhibited by some of Germany's leading philosophers. Fascinating insights into ugliness from dialectical, categorical or purely aesthetic perspectives are found in thinkers such as Hegel, Lessing, Schlegel, Nietzsche, Adorno, Julia Kristeva and most notably Karl Rosenkranz. Whether as a counterpoint to beauty, a target of negation, a literary device, or a victim of humour, ugliness runs throughout the history of Western thought. This compelling study brings that thought together to offer a fresh view that will change the way that scholars think about the ugly.

Author: Mark William Roche
ISBN-10: 1350425591
ISBN-13: 9781350425590
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 10/16/2025
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.32lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.69d