고급예술과 대중예술의 위계와 미적 가치 갈등: 슈스터만의 프래그머티즘 미학을 중심으로

초록

This study critically examines the aesthetic bias that has marginalized popular art within the hierarchical framework of high and popular art, and reconstructs its aesthetic legitimacy through Richard Shusterman’s pragmatist aesthetics. Focusing on three dimensions—artistic creation, aesthetic appreciation, and social practice—this paper explores how popular art can be reinterpreted as a meaningful form of art. First, in terms of creation, it redefines autonomy not as formal independence but as an active autonomy realized through bodily participation and social practice. Second, in the realm of appreciation, it rehabilitates pleasure as a dynamic force of self-transformation and communal resonance rather than mere sensual gratification. Third, from the perspective of social practice, drawing on the concept of flow, it argues that popular art functions as a participatory field of experience rather than an escapist entertainment. While affirming the aesthetic value of popular art, this study also addresses the potential risk of unlimited value relativism by grounding its argument in Shusterman’s meliorism, which understands art as a normative and experiential practice that enhances the quality of life. In conclusion, by redefining the aesthetic concepts of autonomy, pleasure, and flow, this paper proposes a “philosophy of the art of living,” demonstrating that the value of art should be understood through the lived, practical experience of life, thereby suggesting a new aesthetic paradigm that transcends the hierarchy between high and popular art.

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