Emma k reading response 2 PDF

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Second reading response on course reading materials....

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Sianne Ngai “The Cuteness of Avant Garde” In this piece of writing, Sianne Ngai examines the relationship between cuteness and avant garde in art across history. Her main argument is that the poetic avant garde has an element of cuteness that helps shape and define it in each piece of art. There are many steps to her argument, which leads to the understanding of how this connection is made, and how we can use characteristics within a piece of art to find this connection. She begins by identifying some clear and known features of cute things. She then begins to go deeper into the argument by explaining some historical elements of cuteness, and how our relationship with cuteness and our need for cute has changed with cultural and economic adjustments. One example is how she talks about how dolls for children evolved, and went from homemade playthings, and became hard, fragile, hyper-realistic items as production abilities progressed to make more intricate features possible. Eventually, we went back to soft, portable, huggable toys that children could form an attachment to as they played and grew. She then begins examining specific art pieces and how they demonstrate cuteness in various ways. One work in particular she discusses deeply is Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons, which is an excellent example for this writing, as on the surface it is mostly seen as “cute” and childish, but upon deeper examination one will see the themes of avant garde and more deep qualities. She also refers a lot to many Japanese creations and artists, partially because of the “kawaii” theme that has become so popular over time. In this area, she talks about edibility contributing to an item’s cuteness, helplessness, and also somewhat surprisingly an aggressiveness of a cute item. One can begin to see the connection to avant garde with these characteristics that aren’t what we would initially associate with “cute”. She then explains some etymology, and goes deeply into many elements with that. This is important overall because word use overtime and the connotations we give it can greatly shape how we see

and interpret things in the world. For this specific topic, she starts with comparing the words acute, cute, and acuteness, and how they each have their own meaning. This thread continues and examines many areas where word use and association in turn changes how we interpret cuteness. Finally, she brings her discussion back to society and politics, and how cute has a place within each. Mostly, she points out that avant garde is often seen as somewhat pointless, with no real place or contribution to society. Overall, this extensive paper shows the deep complexity of what we call cute, and as she says in her title, the cuteness of avant garde....