Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

that one distinguishable characteristic amongst transgressive works is that of shock and
scandal: “[a]s Shakespeare’s Olivia remarks,” declares Terry Eagleton, “there is no
slander in an allowed fool” (Walter Benjamin 148).
Transgressions of all types ordinarily occur at low levels of discourse such as in
popular entertainment where such transgressions are expected and are rather
conventional, which is precisely Eagleton’s point above: transgression effectively
produces shock only when unexpected. Moreover, transgression is more shocking and
capable of arousing controversy when it occurs in high culture such as canonical art or
“serious” literature. Yet not all that shocks stirs controversy nor is all that rouses scandal
particularly subversive though the popular media’s response demonstrates that they are
endlessly able to confuse the two. Some passages of The Iliad for example, might seem
shocking because the violence is particularly grizzly, but Homer’s epic was never
considered to be subversive for that reason, and hence, it does not belong under the
category of transgression. On the other hand, transgressive works rely more distinctly on
the value of shock from their subversive properties, and consequently, are more likely to
be received by a scandalous uproar, which will prompt institutional authorities to take
some type of punitive action against the work or the artist. In other words, it is
specifically when the seditious elements of a work are thought intentionally to offend its
audience that they are labeled “transgressive” for these elements are considered to pose a
potential threat to established artistic, social, and cultural conventions by harming the
sensitivity of the community, corrupting civic and moral precepts, challenging
conventional artistic norms, and/or subverting accepted forms of institutional power.
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