ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the aesthetics of the underground press is examined through the theoretical framework of Herbert Marcuse’s The Aesthetics Dimension. In his analysis of art, Marcuse notes that aesthetics has the potential to support cultural critique by directly challenging the dominant “reality principle.” The underground press of the Sixties challenged the prevailing reality principle through the use of dissenting visual design, the promotion of rock music, and the development of a new (now termed postmodern) poetics. This poetics is characterized by a focus on radical subjectivity or the relation of language and its meaning to the body as an agent of cultural change.
