This dissertation reconceives the role of the aesthetic in English Studies from an experimental vantage, arguing that literary experimentation models the educational qualities of a radical aesthetic. Chapter I surveys the tradition of aesthetic education and philosophies of the aesthetic, establishes the need to refine our understanding of experimentalism in English Studies, and introduces literary experimentation as both a continuation and revision of traditional aesthetic education. Chapter II takes a radically different approach, rendering a conflict between the world of dance and the world of literary studies in dramatic form. A ludic display of some problems we encounter when literary scholarship enters the classroom, this allegorical play invites us to consider experimentalism as an opportunity for crossing over between seemingly discrete worlds. And it aspires to Gertrude Stein's notion of "composition as explanation," whereby expository discourse poetically invites its own interpretation. Acknowledging that a philosophy of liberation through art must reconcile itself with the troublesome history of the aesthetic's affinity for ideology, Chapter III brings together representatives of seemingly oppositional aesthetic philosophies---Romantic idealism and Marxist materialism. I reveal a provocative continuity beneath the surface conflict between Friedrich Schiller and Theodor Adorno, arguing they similarly formulate the aesthetic through experimental literary means. I then turn to contemporary scholars Elaine Scarry and Isobel Armstrong to address distinct avenues of response to the ideological suspicion of the aesthetic in academia. Making a deliberately eclectic selection of works, Chapter IV examines Gertrude Stein's "If I Told Him, a Completed Portrait of Picasso" (1923), Stephane Mallarme's "Un Coup de Des" (1897), and Brigid Brophy's In Transit (1969). I argue that experimentalism's invitation to unknowing educates by way of a disobedient relationship to ideology, beginning with the idea of the literary work itself. Finally, Chapter V proposes experimental changes to conventional pedagogy by expanding opportunities for exploring, engaging in, and inquiring about poetry as a process, and, citing the revolutionary work of Jerome McGann, finds that these changes coincide literally with changes to textuality.
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机译：本文从实验的角度重新认识了美学在英语研究中的作用，认为文学实验模拟了激进美学的教育品质。第一章概述了审美教育的传统和审美哲学，确立了提高我们对英语研究中的实验主义的理解的必要性，并介绍了文学实验作为传统审美教育的延续和修订。第二章采取了截然不同的方法，以戏剧的形式在舞蹈世界和文学研究世界之间产生了冲突。当文学奖学金进入教室时，我们会遇到一些问题的荒谬的显示，这种寓言性的表演使我们认为实验主义是在看似离散的世界之间跨越的机会。它向往于格特鲁德·斯坦（Gertrude Stein）的“作为解释的构成”的概念，在这种解释中，说明性话语诗意地邀请了它自己的解释。第三章承认通过艺术获得解放的哲学必须与美学与意识形态的亲和力的麻烦历史相吻合，第三章将看似对立的美学哲学的代表-浪漫主义唯心主义和马克思主义唯物主义融合在一起。我揭示了弗里德里希·席勒（Friedrich Schiller）和西奥多·阿多诺（Theodor Adorno）之间的表面冲突下的挑衅性连续性，认为他们同样通过实验性文学手段来表达美学。然后，我转向当代学者伊莱恩·斯卡里（Elaine Scarry）和伊索贝尔·阿姆斯特朗（Isobel Armstrong），探讨应对学术界对美学意识形态怀疑的不同途径。第四章刻意折衷地选择了作品，考察了格特鲁德·斯坦的《如果我告诉他，毕加索的完整肖像》（1923年），斯蒂芬·马拉玛的《 Un Coup de Des》（1897年）和Brigid Brophy的《在途》（1969年）。我认为实验主义对未知的邀请是通过与意识形态的不服从的关系开始的，从文学作品本身的思想开始。最后，第五章提出了对传统教育学的实验性改变，即扩大了诗歌探索，参与和探究过程的机会，并引用了杰罗姆·麦加恩的革命性著作，发现这些改变与文字性的改变在字面上是吻合的。
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