Abstrakt
Should we believe theorists who claim that kitsch represents an aesthetic or ethical defect? Trying to overcome several clichés related to kitsch, the paper deals with the aesthetic phenomenon of kitsch against the background of the audiovisual production of contemporary pop singer Lana del Rey. The first part analyzes the music video Born to Die (2011, dir.
Yoann Lemoine) with a special focus on its kitschy and affective qualities. The second part outlines the issue of kitsch in art and its definitions across the rhetoric of modern and contemporary aesthetic discourse.
Kitsch is also confronted with the categories of camp and nostalgia to explain the mechanisms in which it can rewrite history. The main goal of the paper consists in an explanation of how this production diversifies and expands the category of kitsch in order to put it into a more favorable light than aestheticians usually do.