Abstract

One of the most important functions of literature and art lies in their capacities to transform ways in which cultural issues are conceived. In that respect, literature and art can be seen as a kind of laboratory where experiments are conducted that shape thought into visual and imaginative ways of framing the pain points of a culture. This is by no means a novel conception of literature and art. Although the dominant commonsense notions of literature and art are still the expressive and conceptual ones, the importance of art is also quite often seen in terms that assign a much more active function, that is, a performative one. Literature and art are then conceived as the realm where ideas and values, the building stones of culture, are actively created, constituted and mobilized.