"Aesthetics and ‘Active Discovery’: The Pleasure of Moderate Cognitive Challenge in Mass Art" -- Puzzling Stories: The Aesthetic Appeal of Cognitive Challenge in Literature, Film & Television Chapter uri icon

Abstract

  • In three parts, this essay explains how artworks, including mass artworks, create aesthetic pleasure through cognitive challenge. Part 1 argues that many theorists regard cognitive challenge as central to aesthetic value. Artists, however,tailor those challenges to the coping potential of their intended audiences. Part 2 argues that even mass audiences enjoy cognitive challenges, which stimulate creative problem solving, incongruity resolution, insight, and stress relief. Part 3 illustrates how Hollywood balances the pleasures of cognitive challenge against competing pressures for easy comprehension by mass audiences. The Philadelphia Story (1940) creates moderate challenges through slightly misshapen narrative structures and inconsistent information.

Publication Date

  • 2022-01-01