Monday, May 16, 2011

Analysis # 3 Reader-Response

Reader-Response theory using the "text" of Salvidor Dali himself and his paintings such as this, and Jean-Paul Sartre's theories


In art pieces, Sartre says "if they come from the depths of our heart, we will never find anything but ourselves in it. Though entitled "Autumn Cannibalism," at first glance we wouldn't think of these things. After staring at this picture without the title, it would be assumed that most people wouldn't think of cannibalism off the cuff. They might see arms, faces, some sort of human characteristics melded together with the environment and random objects. But as Sartre talks about the author, or in this case to draw a parallel, the artist, he says he does not see the words or the work as the reader or viewer does, since he knows them before writing, or painting them. He only "projects." He says it is directed creation. The text "does not serve my freedom, it requires it," he says.
For Dali, he had many endeavors and an eccentric personality. He had made a collection of jewels, and in speaking about one, said himself, DalĂ­ himself commented that "Without an audience, without the presence of spectators, these jewels would not fulfill the function for which they came into being. The viewer, then, is the ultimate artist." In this way, he completely would agree with Sartre, who believes the meaning ends in the reader.
While many would look upon this painting and draw their own meaning from it, not many would think of cannibalism, or hopefully not, which shows that Dali had a strange, unique mind that only "projected" an instigator of interpretation, regardless of his inspiration or thoughts at the time. In this way, "art exists as fact when it is seen," not before.

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