On Tuesday, February 12, 2013 Prof. Mark W. Roche of the University of Notre Dame held a stimulating lecture entitled “History and Forms of Beautiful Ugliness”.
In his lecture, Mark Roche discussed several questions:
How can a seemingly ugly work that portrays physical or moral ugliness, whose form is distorted, and whose parts seem to be at odds with one another be considered great art? When and how has the ugly manifested itself most prominently in cultural history? What social and intellectual factors led to its prominence? What kinds or forms of beautiful ugliness exist? And in what ways has the German tradition contributed distinctive insights to the aesthetics of the ugly?
Mark W. Roche is Joyce Professor of German and Concurrent Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Roche is the author of seven books; his two most recent are Why Choose the Liberal Arts? (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), which received the 2012 Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century (Yale University Press, 2004), which was chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine.
