Read the full text of "The White Bird" by John Berger Then, answer...

Read the full text of "The White Bird" by John Berger Then, answer the guide questions. LINK to The White Bird:

https://freefreeschool.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/berger_white_bird.pdf

Guide Questions 1. Enumerate the five qualities that make art fascinating and thought-provoking according to John Berger. How can these qualities be found in the wooden white bird of the peasants of Haute Savoie? Leitivit A tento bis

2. One of the qualities highlighted in the essay is representation. For the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BCE), mimesis or representation is the basic principle of art, specifically tragedy. How can mimesis lead to thinking or insights?

3. The Greek philosopher and founder of Academy in Ancient Athens, Plato (424-348 BCE), suggested that mimesis may not necessarily lead to thinking or insights. Representation is a copy and far removed from the ideal. If art is a copy of the world we live in, which in turn, is just a shadow of the ideal, then art as a mimetic form is twice removed from truth. How do you think, Aristotle or John Berger in this essay disagrees with Plato's theory of representation?

4. What is catharsis? How is aesthetic emotion related to catharsis? Can catharsis lead to thinking or insights?

5. The relation between art and nature according to the essay is a perplexing mystery, and beauty is always encountered despite the indifference of nature and the cruelty of life. How does art or aesthetic experience thrive in such contradictory conditions?