“Poetics of Transgression” disentangles the controversies surrounding three
contemporary art works in order to take up the role of discomfort and the practice of transgression in contemporary art. The criticism thesis argues that although both employ tactics of antagonism, shock, and offense, we can delineate between transgression and mere offense according to the work’s efficacy in challenging the hegemonic order. Works are transgressive when they put into question the hegemonic order and works are offensive when they reinforce the hegemonic order. The tactics of disturbance may be the same but the definitive feature of transgression is that it oversteps and shocks to stimulate dialogue and to bring into clarity that which is under-articulated by the hegemonic order. Whereas offense obfuscates dialogue in order to uphold the hegemonic status quo, transgression instigates inquiry and makes demands of its viewer to engage with the ethical considerations of a work through provocation.