The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
Writing in the tradition of Susan Sontag and Elaine Scarry, Maggie Nelson has emerged as one of our foremost cultural critics with this landmark work about representations of cruelty and violence in art. From Sylvia Plath's poetry to Francis Bacon's paintings, from the Saw franchise to Yoko Ono's performance art, Nelson's nuanced exploration across the artistic landscape ultimately offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility.
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Maggie Nelson is a poet, art critic, and nonfiction author of books such as The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning, Bluets, and Jane: A Murder. She teaches in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts and lives in Los Angeles.
An important and frequently surprising book... could be read as the foundation for a post-avant-garde aesthetics... Nelson, who is also a poet, is such a graceful writer that I...just sat back and enjoyed the show.--Laura Kipnis
[Nelson] dexterously, and creatively, manages to hold a mirror to our culture's fascination with cruelty and invites us to reflect on our personal reasons for indulging it.--Eleni Theodoropoulos
