Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics

CONTENT Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics joins Bloomsbury 20th-Century French Thought, Bloomsbury History of Modern Aesthetics, and Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers as one of four collections on the Bloomsbury Philosophy Library platform. Designed for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and researchers, this database examines how aesthetics—appreciation of and reflection on art, taste, judgment, beauty, and creativity—have developed globally.  

Content is divided into four categories: case studies, readings on aesthetics from non-European and postcolonial perspectives, primary texts and scholarly monographs, and images and video case studies. Thirty-nine case studies highlight artwork and everyday items—paintings, food, and even popular entertainment—to address questions relating to the nature of beauty and taste. Especially noteworthy is the inclusion of 47 critical readings from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America that showcase non-Western scholarship. The primary-text collection offers a curated selection of over 100 ebooks on aesthetics in the humanities, from influential authors such as Mieke Bal and Nelson Goodman. The image gallery includes 295 images (paintings, maps, photographs, etc.) and videos selected to help students approach aesthetics from different angles.

USABILITY The Contemporary Aesthetics platform is attractive and engaging. Patrons can access materials through the top navigation menu, which provides options for exploring movements/schools of thought, subjects, periods, and people. They can also browse by content type (articles, biographical entries, case studies, images, primary texts, secondary literature, or time line) or access the A–Z title list of all resources. If exploring rather than conducting targeted searches, patrons can use the interactive time line, which connects thinkers from the 17th century onward with pivotal social and cultural developments of the time. It should be noted, however, that the time line predominantly features white men from Western traditions rather than the non-European thinkers who appear elsewhere on the site.

Searches can be conducted using the search bar at the top of the homepage, which allows for keyword and advanced searches. The search function is intuitive and responsive, immediately returning results arranged by relevancy that draw from case studies, images, and book chapters from the entire Bloomsbury Philosophy Library. All book pages display the title, book cover, author, copyright year, digital object identifier, edition, publisher, and linked table of contents. One helpful feature is the ability to create personal accounts to save search results and content. Additionally, APA, MLA, and Chicago citations are available for all content.

PRICING The Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics collection on the Bloomsbury Philosophy Library is available for purchase by subscription ($1,877 to $7,498) or by perpetual access ($11,261 to $44,986). If purchasing perpetual access, there is a mandatory annual content-update fee ($600 to $1,000) which begins one year after purchase and ends in 2025, along with the last planned annual content update to the collection. Pricing is based on size and type of institution, and discounts may be available from consortia.

VERDICT Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics offers students and researchers an engaging entry into robust scholarship and innovative thinking in contemporary aesthetics. This user-friendly resource should have a place in academic libraries, particularly those which subscribe to other collections within the Bloomsbury Philosophy Library.