2021

Ylönen, Susanne C.

This chapter explores the concept of ‘aesthetic sublation’ – a performative mode of meaning making that seeks to degrade its object (; ). Here, the phenomenon of aesthetic sublation is discussed as a form of resistance. Moreover, it is related to intergenerational negotiations through cases in which the labels of ‘childish’ and ‘horrific’ or ‘nasty’ converge. The chapter offers a review of how resistance is conceptualized in, for example, childhood studies, aesthetics and research on popular culture and it asks what can be gained by reconceptualising these instances as aesthetic sublation.