| Summary: | <p>This thesis examines aesthetic experience as it relates to the formation of cultural identity in the urban environment of Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. Based on twelve months of fieldwork, the thesis presents an analysis of aesthetics as a cross-cultural process of value attachment which, like identity, is founded on the dialectical relationship between the discursive realm of conceptual meaning and the non-discursive realm of lived experience.</p>
<p>The first of two sections in the thesis shows how identity, as the dialectic between the ideal and the experiential, fits with the concept of a cultural aesthetic, where the discursive quality of art as a symbolic system is constantly negotiated by the non-discursiveness of aesthetic experience. The first section also introduces the city of Puerto Limon through a detailed history of its development, a presentation of the contemporary context, and an analysis of an emergent ideology of blackness. </p>
<p>The second section divides the aesthetic practices found in Limon into four principal forms: the built environment; canvas art and small crafts; music and performance; and literature. Chapter Four discusses the broad theme of the socialisation of space and place in both the national and local contexts. Chapter Five examines a community of canvas artists who participate in constructing an ideal notion of Limonense identity. Chapter Six focuses predominantly on street bands known as <i>comparsas</i> to demonstrate the power of embodied experience to transform idealised notions of identity. Chapter Seven examines the substantial body of literature to come out of the province of Limon, and the split between women as poets and men as novelists. </p>
<p>Finally, the thesis offers a narrative by way of conclusion to demonstrate the complexity of presenting an ethnography of aesthetics and encourage further research in this area. </p>
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