Abstract

Abstract:What does it mean to recognize something as a work of art? In this paper, I approach the question, first, through a discussion of Stanley Cavell's likening of the recognition of artworks to the recognition of persons; and, second, through a discussion of the tendency, especially during the artistic period of Modernism, to compare artworks not to persons but to monsters. My claim is that, far from contradicting Cavell's insight, the comparison of artworks to monsters sheds light on the structure of aesthetic recognition as Cavell correctly understands it.