Identifying Art: A Study Of Carroll’s Historical Narrative

Since ancient times,the concept of art has been in change,there have been a variety of definitions of art.However,in the 20 th century,the western analytical aesthetics community took great interest in the definition of art because of the promotion of avant-garde art.Noel Carroll,as a famous analytical aesthetician,criticized the achievements of his predecessors,changed his direction to find a way to distinguish art,and put forward his own unique " historical narrative".This article focuses on Carroll’s historical narrative by analyzing the viewpoints of relevant theorists,trying to describe the transformation process from artistic definition to artistic discrimination,to dig out the profound connotation of historical narrative,and to examine whether it can fulfill the core task of artistic philosophy.This article is divided into three parts: The first part is mainly a summary and analysis of the history of the concept of art and the definition of art from the perspective of analytical aesthetics,showing the development process of the problem of artistic definition and exploring the ideological origin of Carroll’s artistic theory.The second part researches how Carroll puts forward historical narrative,and focuses on the connotation of historical narrative.The third part shows how Carroll uses historical narrative to distinguish art,and reflects on its limitations,revealing its shortcomings from both history and intention.