A Theoretıcal Treatise On Non-Theoretical Interpretation Of Artworks

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3422571

The most common idea regarding popular interpretation of artworks is twofold: (1) the non-theoretical methods that people use to interpret artworks are utterly personal, and (2) these methods have no relation to each other. This thesis argues that the methods of interpretation that people use in their everyday interactions with artworks nonetheless follow a theoretical logic, and that this logic undergirds several methods, and links them together. These methods are named ‘interpretative functions’ by the thesis, and the logic of their construction follows a dialectic movement; meaning that the contradiction in the previous function allows it to transform itself into the next function. This thesis will outline three of these interpretative functions, and each will be linked to a psychoanalytic concept: pleasure, fetishism, and taste. Logical formalizations are used in order to organize these functions, and to locate the exact moment of dialectical contradiction. In this endeavor, three main theoretical sources are utilized: Hegelian philosophy, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Žižekian theory. With these three pillars, the way non-theoretical interpretation of artworks functions is explored in order to find the irrationally logical structure underneath.