In The Promise of Beauty, Mimi Thi Nguyen explores the relationship between the concept of beauty and narratives of crisis and catastrophe. Nguyen conceptualizes beauty, which, she observes, we turn to in emergencies and times of destruction, as a tool to identify and bridge the discrepancy between the world as it is and what it ought to be. Drawing widely from aesthetic and critical theories, Nguyen outlines how beauty-or its lack-points to the conditions that must exist for it to flourish. She notes that an absence of beauty becomes both a political observation and a call to action to transform the conditions of the situation so as to replicate, preserve, or repair beauty. The promise of beauty can then engender a critique of social arrangements and political structures that would set the foundations for its possibility and presence. In this way, Nguyen highlights the role of beauty in inspiring action toward a more just world.
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Small Art and Love and Beauty 1
1. The Beautiful, Finding Itself in Danger, Desires Its Copy 37
2. An Education in Beauty (and the Necessity of Lawlessness) 70
3. The Right to Be Beautiful without Guarantee 103
4. Beauty’s Ruin at the End of the World 139
5. Living Beautifully, or Resilience 171
Epilogue. In Conclusion, Crime Is Beauty 199
Notes 209
Bibliography 251
Index 287
