Michael Jackson’s Radical Aesthetic: Volume Two: How He Answered His Critics and Redefined Art

This two-volume work encourages students, fans, and scholars to take an expansive view of Michael Jackson’s art. Focusing on his films, which it approaches as exquisite works of art as well as a theoretical framework for interpreting his other work, it demonstrates the depth and scope of his art and its far-reaching cultural significance. Specifically, it demonstrates how Jackson engaged in a sophisticated process of telling, untelling, and retelling entrenched cultural narratives that perpetuate prejudice, and how he modified affective responses to racial signifiers and other marks of difference. In this way, Jackson confronted prejudice more profoundly than any other American artist in recent memory.

This work also takes a detailed look at the allegations of child sexual abuse. These were so shattering for Jackson both personally and creatively that his life and career divide into two parts - a division reflected in the two-volume structure of this work. Volume One focuses on Jackson’s early films followed by analysis of the allegations, including historical factors that may have influenced how the police, press, and public reacted. Volume Two then focuses on the art Jackson created in response, including some of the most poignant, political, and significant work of his career.

Volume Two also looks at evolving perceptions of Jackson’s face and persona, approaching them as revolutionary yet deeply troubling works of art - works that became even more unsettling as Jackson wrestled with the intense emotions unleashed by the abuse allegations. It posits that popular perceptions of Jackson’s face and persona were illusions that performed critically important cultural functions, and that Jackson himself - the man behind the illusion - was a trickster artist. It concludes that Jackson was the most important American artist of our time, and that his face was his masterpiece. However, it only arrives at these conclusions after careful analysis of his films. It’s through his films that Jackson articulates his aesthetic. Therefore, it’s his films that make his face legible.

Willa Stillwater co-founded and serves as co-author and co-editor of Dancing with the Elephant (dancingwiththeelephant.wordpress.com), a blog devoted to fostering conversations about Michael Jackson, his art, and social change. Stillwater has a PhD in English from the University of Oregon.