Danto A.C. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. — Winter 1974. — Vol. 33. — No. 2. — p. 139-148.The title of this essay was the title of the famous book written by Sister Helena of the Transfiguration (nee Sandy Stranger) in Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I have coveted the title, and resolved to steal it the moment I wrote something it might fit. There has always been a question in my mind as to what the book contained, its content's no more being given in the book which mentions it than Fafnir's biology is available to a close reader of Wagner's libretto. In personal correspondance, Mrs. Spark informs me "I invented the title because I felt it was a description of creative art as I myself practice it" (Letter, 23 November, 1973). It is also a description of creative art as practiced by me.