French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Pfeiffer, Le goût du moche
Art and Visual Culture
Alice Pfeiffer
Le goût du moche
Flammarion, May 2021
Illustrations: Aline Zalko
200 p — EAN: 9782081511750
As a fashion journalist, Alice Pfeiffer observes her colleagues amassing fabulous pieces as collections, seasons, and press sales come and go. But not her. To her absolute delight, she collects "ugly things."
What we call "ugly" often touches on emotion, humor, or comfort.
And it is trending: from Crocs and ugly Christmas sweater contests to garden gnomes in contemporary art!
It can even become a statement, a point of pride, or a way to deconstruct academic dogma.
This manifesto of bad taste offers a bold theory to finally embrace the kitsch, the tacky, and the flashy.
View the book on the publisher's website…
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Positioned at the intersection of cultural studies, sociology and fashion journalism, this essay examines how societal definitions of beauty and taste shift over time. By looking at everyday items like Crocs, garden gnomes and tacky garments, the author investigates how what society labels as ugly often evokes genuine emotion, humor and comfort. This work engages with long-standing philosophical debates surrounding aesthetics, high culture and popular taste, questioning why academic and institutional standards so often dismiss the flashy, the kitsch and the unpolished.
Readers interested in contemporary cultural trends, media studies and the sociology of everyday life will find this book a stimulating and accessible read. It offers valuable perspectives for students and scholars of visual culture, art history and sociology who seek to understand how taste functions as a social marker. By reframing the unrefined as a form of freedom and self-expression, the text invites audiences to reconsider their own aesthetic assumptions and embrace the playful side of material culture.