The Dialectic Of Taste

By: David Michalski

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Synopsis: The Dialectic of Taste provides a new way of thinking about the aesthetization of everyday life and the aesthetic economy. It configures taste as a kind of labor, one that is increasingly exploited in an economy geared to convert cultural capital to monetary value. This book examines the cultural fallout of this conversion. The movements of the dialectic of taste are illustrated through a study of Tuscan motifs in contemporary consumer culture. From this examination, a social process of Tuscanization is shown to take shape as a response to crises associated with McDonaldization. By applying a historical materialist approach to the interpretation of consumer culture, The Dialectic of Taste demonstrates how distorted images of beauty, trapped in everyday commodities, can come to represent collective social demands, and provoke social change. In doing so, this book provides a bold new trajectory for critical theory, cultural studies, and the sociology of taste.