Stephen Davies
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199202423
- eISBN:
- 9780191708541
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202423.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This book presents a series of chapters devoted to two of the most fundamental topics in the philosophy of art: the distinctive character of artworks and what is involved in understanding them as ...
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This book presents a series of chapters devoted to two of the most fundamental topics in the philosophy of art: the distinctive character of artworks and what is involved in understanding them as art. In Part I, a wide range of questions about the nature and definition of art are considered. Can art be defined, and if so, which definitions are the most plausible? Do we make and consume art because there are evolutionary advantages to doing so? Has art completed the mission that guided its earlier historical development, and if so, what is to become of it now? Should architecture be classified as an art form? Part II turns to the interpretation and appreciation of art. What is the target and purpose of the critic's interpretation? Is interpretation primarily directed at uncovering artists' intended meanings? Can apparently contradictory interpretations of a given piece both be true? Are interpretative evaluations entailed by descriptions of a work's aesthetic and artistic characteristics? In addition to providing answers to these and other questions in aesthetics, there is consideration of the nature and content of metaphor, and the relation between the expressive qualities of a work of art and the emotions of its creator.Less
This book presents a series of chapters devoted to two of the most fundamental topics in the philosophy of art: the distinctive character of artworks and what is involved in understanding them as art. In Part I, a wide range of questions about the nature and definition of art are considered. Can art be defined, and if so, which definitions are the most plausible? Do we make and consume art because there are evolutionary advantages to doing so? Has art completed the mission that guided its earlier historical development, and if so, what is to become of it now? Should architecture be classified as an art form? Part II turns to the interpretation and appreciation of art. What is the target and purpose of the critic's interpretation? Is interpretation primarily directed at uncovering artists' intended meanings? Can apparently contradictory interpretations of a given piece both be true? Are interpretative evaluations entailed by descriptions of a work's aesthetic and artistic characteristics? In addition to providing answers to these and other questions in aesthetics, there is consideration of the nature and content of metaphor, and the relation between the expressive qualities of a work of art and the emotions of its creator.
Cindy Dell Clark
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195376593
- eISBN:
- 9780199865437
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195376593.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Clinical Child Psychology / School Psychology
This book provides qualitative researchers with a guide to inquiry that learns from, with and about children. From fieldwork done during participant observation, to focus groups and depth ...
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This book provides qualitative researchers with a guide to inquiry that learns from, with and about children. From fieldwork done during participant observation, to focus groups and depth interviews, to the use of artwork, photography, play and metaphors, viable methods to foreground children’s views are featured. The tools for child-centered research and its interpretation are drawn from both academic and applied qualitative inquiry, providing broad instruction across a range of kid-attuned approaches. The book takes stock of a blossoming world-wide child-centered research movement, and its promise of better grasping children’s lives. Child-focused inquiry, the book insists, has relevance to both academic theory and practical application, including public policy.Less
This book provides qualitative researchers with a guide to inquiry that learns from, with and about children. From fieldwork done during participant observation, to focus groups and depth interviews, to the use of artwork, photography, play and metaphors, viable methods to foreground children’s views are featured. The tools for child-centered research and its interpretation are drawn from both academic and applied qualitative inquiry, providing broad instruction across a range of kid-attuned approaches. The book takes stock of a blossoming world-wide child-centered research movement, and its promise of better grasping children’s lives. Child-focused inquiry, the book insists, has relevance to both academic theory and practical application, including public policy.
Laurie Shrage
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195153095
- eISBN:
- 9780199870615
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515309X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This book argues that Roe v. Wade's six‐month time span for abortion “on demand” polarized the American public, and obscured alternatives that could have gained broad public support. As ...
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This book argues that Roe v. Wade's six‐month time span for abortion “on demand” polarized the American public, and obscured alternatives that could have gained broad public support. As a result, a predictable bureaucratic backlash to legal abortion has ensued that has placed legal abortion services out of reach for women who are poor, young, or live far from urban centers. Explores the origins of Roe's regulatory scheme and demonstrates that it resulted from concerns that have considerably less relevance in today's medical context. Endorses regulatory guidelines, first proposed by the American Bar Association in 1972, which would give states more flexibility in setting the time span for unrestricted abortion. Argues that the standard civil liberty defenses of abortion (i.e. privacy, involuntary servitude, self‐defense, religious freedom) offer better support for these guidelines than for Roe’s scheme, and that a time span for nontherapeutic abortions shorter than six months can both protect women's interests and advance important public interests. The book also critiques the individualism of “pro‐choice” post‐Roe abortion rights campaigns for failing to articulate how women's reproductive options depend on access to public services and resources and not only on being let alone. Urges reproductive rights activists to emphasize the interconnections both between social responsibility and respect for human life, and between the Samaritan obligations of pregnant women and those of other citizens. Explores feminist artwork on abortion to extrapolate tools for refocusing the abortion debate on these issues and for contesting the extremist tactics of the “pro‐life” movement.Less
This book argues that Roe v. Wade's six‐month time span for abortion “on demand” polarized the American public, and obscured alternatives that could have gained broad public support. As a result, a predictable bureaucratic backlash to legal abortion has ensued that has placed legal abortion services out of reach for women who are poor, young, or live far from urban centers. Explores the origins of Roe's regulatory scheme and demonstrates that it resulted from concerns that have considerably less relevance in today's medical context. Endorses regulatory guidelines, first proposed by the American Bar Association in 1972, which would give states more flexibility in setting the time span for unrestricted abortion. Argues that the standard civil liberty defenses of abortion (i.e. privacy, involuntary servitude, self‐defense, religious freedom) offer better support for these guidelines than for Roe’s scheme, and that a time span for nontherapeutic abortions shorter than six months can both protect women's interests and advance important public interests. The book also critiques the individualism of “pro‐choice” post‐Roe abortion rights campaigns for failing to articulate how women's reproductive options depend on access to public services and resources and not only on being let alone. Urges reproductive rights activists to emphasize the interconnections both between social responsibility and respect for human life, and between the Samaritan obligations of pregnant women and those of other citizens. Explores feminist artwork on abortion to extrapolate tools for refocusing the abortion debate on these issues and for contesting the extremist tactics of the “pro‐life” movement.
Jerrold Levinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199206179
- eISBN:
- 9780191709982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206179.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This essay aims to do just two things. One is to underline the necessity of a historical dimension in any acceptable account of arthood. Two is to sketch answers to certain objections that have been ...
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This essay aims to do just two things. One is to underline the necessity of a historical dimension in any acceptable account of arthood. Two is to sketch answers to certain objections that have been recently raised for an intentional-historical account of art, most of which offer a challenge to its insistence on an ineliminable historical element in any such account. In the course of underlining the historical character of the concept of art, it is shown that certain non-historical considerations appealed to by some theorists, for instance, institutional or functional ones, which appear to weigh importantly in some cases of arthood, in fact have an underlying or reinforcing rationale of a history-involving sort.Less
This essay aims to do just two things. One is to underline the necessity of a historical dimension in any acceptable account of arthood. Two is to sketch answers to certain objections that have been recently raised for an intentional-historical account of art, most of which offer a challenge to its insistence on an ineliminable historical element in any such account. In the course of underlining the historical character of the concept of art, it is shown that certain non-historical considerations appealed to by some theorists, for instance, institutional or functional ones, which appear to weigh importantly in some cases of arthood, in fact have an underlying or reinforcing rationale of a history-involving sort.
Jerrold Levinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199206179
- eISBN:
- 9780191709982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206179.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This essay surveys the range of philosophical problems that can be encompassed under the rubric, emotion in response to art. It details five such problems, according most of its attention to the ...
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This essay surveys the range of philosophical problems that can be encompassed under the rubric, emotion in response to art. It details five such problems, according most of its attention to the nature of the emotional responses had to art, and the puzzle of emotional responses to fictional entities known to be fictional (what is often labeled ‘the paradox of fiction’). Attention is also given to the puzzle of how people derive satisfaction from art expressive or evocative of negative emotion (what is often labeled ‘the paradox of tragedy’), and to the question of how abstract works of art (such as pieces of instrumental music) manage to express or evoke emotions at all.Less
This essay surveys the range of philosophical problems that can be encompassed under the rubric, emotion in response to art. It details five such problems, according most of its attention to the nature of the emotional responses had to art, and the puzzle of emotional responses to fictional entities known to be fictional (what is often labeled ‘the paradox of fiction’). Attention is also given to the puzzle of how people derive satisfaction from art expressive or evocative of negative emotion (what is often labeled ‘the paradox of tragedy’), and to the question of how abstract works of art (such as pieces of instrumental music) manage to express or evoke emotions at all.
Robert Rowland Smith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640393
- eISBN:
- 9780748671601
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640393.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book takes Freud's work on the death-drive and compares it with other philosophies of death — those of Pascal, Heidegger and Derrida in particular. It also applies it in a new way to literature ...
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This book takes Freud's work on the death-drive and compares it with other philosophies of death — those of Pascal, Heidegger and Derrida in particular. It also applies it in a new way to literature and art — to that of Shakespeare, Rothko and Katharina Fritsch, among others. The book asks whether artworks are dead or alive; if artistic creativity isn't actually a form of destruction; and whether our ability to be seduced by fine words means we don't put ourselves at risk of death. In doing so, the book proposes a new theory of aesthetics in which artworks and literary texts have a death-drive of their own, not least by their defining ability to turn away from all that is real, and where the effects of the death-drive mean that we are constantly living in imaginary, rhetorical, or ‘artistic’ worlds. The book also provides a valuable introduction to the rich tradition of work on the death-drive since Freud.Less
This book takes Freud's work on the death-drive and compares it with other philosophies of death — those of Pascal, Heidegger and Derrida in particular. It also applies it in a new way to literature and art — to that of Shakespeare, Rothko and Katharina Fritsch, among others. The book asks whether artworks are dead or alive; if artistic creativity isn't actually a form of destruction; and whether our ability to be seduced by fine words means we don't put ourselves at risk of death. In doing so, the book proposes a new theory of aesthetics in which artworks and literary texts have a death-drive of their own, not least by their defining ability to turn away from all that is real, and where the effects of the death-drive mean that we are constantly living in imaginary, rhetorical, or ‘artistic’ worlds. The book also provides a valuable introduction to the rich tradition of work on the death-drive since Freud.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579976
- eISBN:
- 9780191722615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579976.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This chapter rectifies shortcomings in the author's previous sustained treatment of this subject in his book The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. The structure of Kant's account of the ...
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This chapter rectifies shortcomings in the author's previous sustained treatment of this subject in his book The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. The structure of Kant's account of the mathematical sublime is analyzed, suggesting that the role played by infinity should be regarded as contingent rather than necessary, and that an austere reconstruction of his theory is to be preferred over Kant's own rather baroque account. A similar exposition is performed in relation to Kant's account of the dynamical sublime. In revising Kant's theory, special attention is paid to the hitherto neglected question of the specific perceptual cues that trigger experiences of both varieties of the sublime. The theory is also extended to cover artworks, including some of an avant-garde nature.Less
This chapter rectifies shortcomings in the author's previous sustained treatment of this subject in his book The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art. The structure of Kant's account of the mathematical sublime is analyzed, suggesting that the role played by infinity should be regarded as contingent rather than necessary, and that an austere reconstruction of his theory is to be preferred over Kant's own rather baroque account. A similar exposition is performed in relation to Kant's account of the dynamical sublime. In revising Kant's theory, special attention is paid to the hitherto neglected question of the specific perceptual cues that trigger experiences of both varieties of the sublime. The theory is also extended to cover artworks, including some of an avant-garde nature.
Rebecca Braun
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199542703
- eISBN:
- 9780191715372
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542703.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter investigates how a further change in Grass's understanding of authorship can be discerned in the ‘mixed-media’ works Zunge zeigen and Mein Jahrhundert. The starting ...
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This chapter investigates how a further change in Grass's understanding of authorship can be discerned in the ‘mixed-media’ works Zunge zeigen and Mein Jahrhundert. The starting point for discussion is the assertion that Grass's tendency to present his creative abilities in various artistic disciplines results in his expanding the remit of the authorial role. The multiple disciplines introduce a new kind of dialogue to the author's text that goes beyond the construction of the ‘encapsulated’ narrative self of his earlier autofictional pieces. At the same time, the insights gained from Grass's exploration of authorial limitations (as developed in Chapter 4) add a qualification to his self-presentation. In the texts discussed in this chapter, a monumental celebration of authorship is accompanied by an ironic deconstruction of the concept. The specific dynamics between author, narrator, and text combine to question the author's textual centrality even as they would appear to confirm it.Less
This chapter investigates how a further change in Grass's understanding of authorship can be discerned in the ‘mixed-media’ works Zunge zeigen and Mein Jahrhundert. The starting point for discussion is the assertion that Grass's tendency to present his creative abilities in various artistic disciplines results in his expanding the remit of the authorial role. The multiple disciplines introduce a new kind of dialogue to the author's text that goes beyond the construction of the ‘encapsulated’ narrative self of his earlier autofictional pieces. At the same time, the insights gained from Grass's exploration of authorial limitations (as developed in Chapter 4) add a qualification to his self-presentation. In the texts discussed in this chapter, a monumental celebration of authorship is accompanied by an ironic deconstruction of the concept. The specific dynamics between author, narrator, and text combine to question the author's textual centrality even as they would appear to confirm it.
Margareta Ingrid Christian
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780226764771
- eISBN:
- 9780226764801
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226764801.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This book is a literary study of art writings around 1900. It traces evocations of air within and without an artwork, evocations between artwork as image and as material object. As such, it is about ...
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This book is a literary study of art writings around 1900. It traces evocations of air within and without an artwork, evocations between artwork as image and as material object. As such, it is about artworks that continue beyond their material confines and about air as the embodiment of their continuity. The book focuses on air as the material space surrounding an artwork, its milieu, surroundings, and environment or Umwelt. By looking closely at the linguistic efforts of the art historians Aby Warburg and Alois Riegl, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and the dance theorist and choreographer Rudolf Laban, the book investigates the artwork’s external space as an aesthetic category in its own right. What is the medium of the artwork’s externalism? It contends that air, the medium of continuity par excellence – air is the site of aesthetic ecologies; it is where artworks enact the permeable boundaries between art and life. The book rethinks entrenched narratives of aesthetics and modernism and recuperates alternative ones: self-transcending art objects complicate the discourse of empathy aesthetics and its attention to self-projecting subjects; furthermore, works of art that stray outside their limits challenge the notion of the enclosed aesthetic form and, in particular, that of the modernist self-contained artwork. In its concern with the continuity between form and space, the book also invites us to historicize the immersive spatial installations and environments of Minimalism from the 1960s onward, and to consider their origins in aesthetics around 1900.Less
This book is a literary study of art writings around 1900. It traces evocations of air within and without an artwork, evocations between artwork as image and as material object. As such, it is about artworks that continue beyond their material confines and about air as the embodiment of their continuity. The book focuses on air as the material space surrounding an artwork, its milieu, surroundings, and environment or Umwelt. By looking closely at the linguistic efforts of the art historians Aby Warburg and Alois Riegl, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and the dance theorist and choreographer Rudolf Laban, the book investigates the artwork’s external space as an aesthetic category in its own right. What is the medium of the artwork’s externalism? It contends that air, the medium of continuity par excellence – air is the site of aesthetic ecologies; it is where artworks enact the permeable boundaries between art and life. The book rethinks entrenched narratives of aesthetics and modernism and recuperates alternative ones: self-transcending art objects complicate the discourse of empathy aesthetics and its attention to self-projecting subjects; furthermore, works of art that stray outside their limits challenge the notion of the enclosed aesthetic form and, in particular, that of the modernist self-contained artwork. In its concern with the continuity between form and space, the book also invites us to historicize the immersive spatial installations and environments of Minimalism from the 1960s onward, and to consider their origins in aesthetics around 1900.
Stephen Davies
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199202423
- eISBN:
- 9780191708541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202423.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter provides an analysis of the role played by consideration of an item's functions when it is judged aesthetically. The account applies also to artworks, some of which serve extrinsic ...
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This chapter provides an analysis of the role played by consideration of an item's functions when it is judged aesthetically. The account applies also to artworks, some of which serve extrinsic functions and others of which have the function of being contemplated for their own sake alone. It is argued that aesthetic judgments do not fit the Kantian model either of judgments of free beauty or of dependent beauty, given how these two came to be described in the early 20th century.Less
This chapter provides an analysis of the role played by consideration of an item's functions when it is judged aesthetically. The account applies also to artworks, some of which serve extrinsic functions and others of which have the function of being contemplated for their own sake alone. It is argued that aesthetic judgments do not fit the Kantian model either of judgments of free beauty or of dependent beauty, given how these two came to be described in the early 20th century.
Mukti Khaire
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780804792219
- eISBN:
- 9781503603080
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804792219.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This book describes how commercial ventures in creative industries have cultural impact. Since royal patronage of arts ended, firms in the creative industries, working within the market mechanism, ...
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This book describes how commercial ventures in creative industries have cultural impact. Since royal patronage of arts ended, firms in the creative industries, working within the market mechanism, have been responsible for the production and distribution of the cultural goods—art, books, films, fashion, and music—that enrich our lives. This book counters the popular perception that this marriage of art and business is a necessary evil, proposing instead that entrepreneurs who introduce radically new cultural works to the market must bring about a change in society’s beliefs about what is appropriate and valuable to encourage consumption of these goods. In so doing, these pioneer entrepreneurs change minds, not just lives; the seeds of cultural change are embedded in the world of commerce. Building on theories of value construction and cultural production, integrated with field research on pioneer firms (like Chanel and the Sundance Institute) and new market categories (like modern art and high fashion in India), the author develops conceptual frameworks that explain the structure and functioning of creative industries. Through a systematic exposition of the roles and functions of the players in this space—creators, producers, and intermediaries—the book proposes a new way to understand the relationship among markets, entrepreneurship, and culture. Khaire also discusses challenges inherent in being entrepreneurial in the creative industries, paying special attention to the implications of digitalization and globalization, and suggests prescriptive directions for individuals and firms wishing to balance pecuniary motivations with cultural convictions in this rapidly changing world.Less
This book describes how commercial ventures in creative industries have cultural impact. Since royal patronage of arts ended, firms in the creative industries, working within the market mechanism, have been responsible for the production and distribution of the cultural goods—art, books, films, fashion, and music—that enrich our lives. This book counters the popular perception that this marriage of art and business is a necessary evil, proposing instead that entrepreneurs who introduce radically new cultural works to the market must bring about a change in society’s beliefs about what is appropriate and valuable to encourage consumption of these goods. In so doing, these pioneer entrepreneurs change minds, not just lives; the seeds of cultural change are embedded in the world of commerce. Building on theories of value construction and cultural production, integrated with field research on pioneer firms (like Chanel and the Sundance Institute) and new market categories (like modern art and high fashion in India), the author develops conceptual frameworks that explain the structure and functioning of creative industries. Through a systematic exposition of the roles and functions of the players in this space—creators, producers, and intermediaries—the book proposes a new way to understand the relationship among markets, entrepreneurship, and culture. Khaire also discusses challenges inherent in being entrepreneurial in the creative industries, paying special attention to the implications of digitalization and globalization, and suggests prescriptive directions for individuals and firms wishing to balance pecuniary motivations with cultural convictions in this rapidly changing world.
William May
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199583379
- eISBN:
- 9780191723193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583379.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The Conclusion considers that it is difficult to draw forth conclusions regarding Stevie Smith, and talks about the various opinions and analyses regarding which genres and what forms constitute ...
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The Conclusion considers that it is difficult to draw forth conclusions regarding Stevie Smith, and talks about the various opinions and analyses regarding which genres and what forms constitute Stevie Smith's work. It talks about where Stevie Smith herself would place her work. The Conclusion uses Stevie Smith's artwork to illustrate the argument.Less
The Conclusion considers that it is difficult to draw forth conclusions regarding Stevie Smith, and talks about the various opinions and analyses regarding which genres and what forms constitute Stevie Smith's work. It talks about where Stevie Smith herself would place her work. The Conclusion uses Stevie Smith's artwork to illustrate the argument.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452369
- eISBN:
- 9780801469282
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452369.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory along with his other writings on aesthetics in light of the unexpected return of the aesthetic to today's cultural debates. Is Adorno's ...
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This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory along with his other writings on aesthetics in light of the unexpected return of the aesthetic to today's cultural debates. Is Adorno's aesthetic theory still relevant today? This question is answered with an emphatic yes. As the book shows, a careful reading of the work exposes different questions and arguments today than it did in the past. Over the years Adorno's concern over the fate of art in a late capitalist society has met with everything from suspicion to indifference. In part this could be explained by relative unfamiliarity with the German dialectical tradition in North America. Today's debate is better informed, more multifaceted, and further removed from the immediate aftermath of the Cold War and of the shadow of postmodernism. Adorno's insistence on the radical autonomy of art has much to offer contemporary discussions of art and the aesthetic in search of new responses to the pervasive effects of a neoliberal art market and culture industry. The book shows how radically transformative Adorno's ideas have been and how thoroughly they have shaped current discussions in aesthetics. Among the topics considered are the role of art in modernism and postmodernism, the truth claims of artworks, the function of the ugly in modern artworks, the precarious value of the literary tradition, and the surprising significance of realism for Adorno.Less
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory along with his other writings on aesthetics in light of the unexpected return of the aesthetic to today's cultural debates. Is Adorno's aesthetic theory still relevant today? This question is answered with an emphatic yes. As the book shows, a careful reading of the work exposes different questions and arguments today than it did in the past. Over the years Adorno's concern over the fate of art in a late capitalist society has met with everything from suspicion to indifference. In part this could be explained by relative unfamiliarity with the German dialectical tradition in North America. Today's debate is better informed, more multifaceted, and further removed from the immediate aftermath of the Cold War and of the shadow of postmodernism. Adorno's insistence on the radical autonomy of art has much to offer contemporary discussions of art and the aesthetic in search of new responses to the pervasive effects of a neoliberal art market and culture industry. The book shows how radically transformative Adorno's ideas have been and how thoroughly they have shaped current discussions in aesthetics. Among the topics considered are the role of art in modernism and postmodernism, the truth claims of artworks, the function of the ugly in modern artworks, the precarious value of the literary tradition, and the surprising significance of realism for Adorno.
A. Martin Byers and DeeAnne Wymer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034553
- eISBN:
- 9780813039190
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034553.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This book addresses some important questions related to the builders of artworks in Middle Ohio Valley by examining the cultural and social nature of the well-known Ohio Hopewell monumental ...
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This book addresses some important questions related to the builders of artworks in Middle Ohio Valley by examining the cultural and social nature of the well-known Ohio Hopewell monumental earthworks. Chapters examine the purpose, meaning, and role of earthworks and similar artifacts, considering how they may have reflected political, social, and practical ecological organization. The open conversations and debates presented in this book regarding divergent archaeological practices provides an opportunity for the assessment of various approaches to studying these ancient communities.Less
This book addresses some important questions related to the builders of artworks in Middle Ohio Valley by examining the cultural and social nature of the well-known Ohio Hopewell monumental earthworks. Chapters examine the purpose, meaning, and role of earthworks and similar artifacts, considering how they may have reflected political, social, and practical ecological organization. The open conversations and debates presented in this book regarding divergent archaeological practices provides an opportunity for the assessment of various approaches to studying these ancient communities.
Steven Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823256778
- eISBN:
- 9780823261406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256778.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book considers forms of violence that regularly occur in actual wars but do not often factor into the stories we tell about war, which revolve invariably around killing and death. Recent history ...
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This book considers forms of violence that regularly occur in actual wars but do not often factor into the stories we tell about war, which revolve invariably around killing and death. Recent history demonstrates that body counts are more necessary than ever, but the fact remains that war and death is only part of the story—an essential but ultimately subordinate part. Beyond killing, there is no war without attacks upon the built environment, ecosystems, personal property, artworks, archives, and intangible traditions. Destructive as it may be, such violence is difficult to classify because it does not pose a grave threat to human lives. Nonetheless, the book argues that destruction of the nonhuman or nonliving is a constitutive dimension of all violence—especially forms of extreme violence against the living such as torture and rape; and it examines how the language and practice of war are transformed when this dimension is taken into account. Finally, the book offers a rethinking of psychoanalytic approaches to war and the theory of the death drive that underlies them.Less
This book considers forms of violence that regularly occur in actual wars but do not often factor into the stories we tell about war, which revolve invariably around killing and death. Recent history demonstrates that body counts are more necessary than ever, but the fact remains that war and death is only part of the story—an essential but ultimately subordinate part. Beyond killing, there is no war without attacks upon the built environment, ecosystems, personal property, artworks, archives, and intangible traditions. Destructive as it may be, such violence is difficult to classify because it does not pose a grave threat to human lives. Nonetheless, the book argues that destruction of the nonhuman or nonliving is a constitutive dimension of all violence—especially forms of extreme violence against the living such as torture and rape; and it examines how the language and practice of war are transformed when this dimension is taken into account. Finally, the book offers a rethinking of psychoanalytic approaches to war and the theory of the death drive that underlies them.
Kam Louie (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028412
- eISBN:
- 9789882206960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028412.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter considers artworks that incorporate text and images related to the institutional dynamics of the formation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic ...
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This chapter considers artworks that incorporate text and images related to the institutional dynamics of the formation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. In this context—a historically unprecedented territorial formation and a political movement geared to increasing democratic practice—alternative performance art and art actions contribute to the articulation of an urban cultural politics with national dimensions and a spatial expression in public life. Reflecting on word and image, this discussion focuses on performance artworks concerned specifically with text, speech acts, statements and enactments, and those whose use of images or representational images have resonated beyond their moments of production to become known among artists and the art-viewing public as a consequence of social documentation.Less
This chapter considers artworks that incorporate text and images related to the institutional dynamics of the formation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. In this context—a historically unprecedented territorial formation and a political movement geared to increasing democratic practice—alternative performance art and art actions contribute to the articulation of an urban cultural politics with national dimensions and a spatial expression in public life. Reflecting on word and image, this discussion focuses on performance artworks concerned specifically with text, speech acts, statements and enactments, and those whose use of images or representational images have resonated beyond their moments of production to become known among artists and the art-viewing public as a consequence of social documentation.
Jerrold Levinson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199691494
- eISBN:
- 9780191746277
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691494.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Roughly thirty years ago, as part of an exploration into the ontology of art, Jerrold Levinson suggested that musical works—and implicitly, also literary works—were not pure, abstract structures, ...
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Roughly thirty years ago, as part of an exploration into the ontology of art, Jerrold Levinson suggested that musical works—and implicitly, also literary works—were not pure, abstract structures, like mathematical objects, but instead impure, indicated structures. (See ‘What a Musical Work Is’ and ‘What a Musical Work Is, Again’, reprinted in Music, Art, and Metaphysics, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press), 2011). However, what exactly does that mean? In this chapter the author revisits that old idea of his in the hope of clarifying it, before then using it as a springboard to discussion of the distinctiveness of artistic indication as a singular psychological act, of the individuation of indicated objects that results from artistic indication, of the relation between artistic indication and actions of simple indication, and finally, of the indication that musical and literary artworks effect, as opposed to the indication by which they are created.Less
Roughly thirty years ago, as part of an exploration into the ontology of art, Jerrold Levinson suggested that musical works—and implicitly, also literary works—were not pure, abstract structures, like mathematical objects, but instead impure, indicated structures. (See ‘What a Musical Work Is’ and ‘What a Musical Work Is, Again’, reprinted in Music, Art, and Metaphysics, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press), 2011). However, what exactly does that mean? In this chapter the author revisits that old idea of his in the hope of clarifying it, before then using it as a springboard to discussion of the distinctiveness of artistic indication as a singular psychological act, of the individuation of indicated objects that results from artistic indication, of the relation between artistic indication and actions of simple indication, and finally, of the indication that musical and literary artworks effect, as opposed to the indication by which they are created.
Allan Hazlett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199691494
- eISBN:
- 9780191746277
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691494.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Metaphysics/Epistemology
There seem to be repeatable artworks. Plays and musical works (like Hamlet or ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’) can be performed again and again; installations (like Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #260) can be ...
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There seem to be repeatable artworks. Plays and musical works (like Hamlet or ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’) can be performed again and again; installations (like Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #260) can be installed over and over; culinary dishes (like Jean-George Vongerichten’s tuna tartare) can be prepared many times. This chapter offers an argument against the existence of repeatable artworks. First, the chapter argues that an artwork is repeatable only if it is an abstract object. This jives with standard accounts of repeatable works, which take them to be abstracta. Second, it argues that abstract objects must have all their properties essentially. Finally, since repeatable artworks, if there are any, do not have all their properties essentially, the chapter concludes that there are no repeatable artworks.Less
There seem to be repeatable artworks. Plays and musical works (like Hamlet or ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’) can be performed again and again; installations (like Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #260) can be installed over and over; culinary dishes (like Jean-George Vongerichten’s tuna tartare) can be prepared many times. This chapter offers an argument against the existence of repeatable artworks. First, the chapter argues that an artwork is repeatable only if it is an abstract object. This jives with standard accounts of repeatable works, which take them to be abstracta. Second, it argues that abstract objects must have all their properties essentially. Finally, since repeatable artworks, if there are any, do not have all their properties essentially, the chapter concludes that there are no repeatable artworks.
Leilani Nishime
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038075
- eISBN:
- 9780252095344
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This first book-length study of media images of multiracial Asian Americans, tracing the codes that alternatively enable and prevent audiences from recognizing the multiracial status of Asian ...
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This first book-length study of media images of multiracial Asian Americans, tracing the codes that alternatively enable and prevent audiences from recognizing the multiracial status of Asian Americans. The book's perceptive readings of popular media—movies, television shows, magazine articles, and artwork—indicate how and why the viewing public often fails to identify multiracial Asian Americans. Using actor Keanu Reeves, the Matrix trilogy, and golfer Tiger Woods as examples, the book suggests that this failure is tied to gender, sexuality, and post-racial politics. Also considering alternative images such as reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons, the television show Battlestar Galactica, and the artwork of Kip Fulbeck, this incisive study offers nuanced interpretations that open the door to a new and productive understanding of race in America.Less
This first book-length study of media images of multiracial Asian Americans, tracing the codes that alternatively enable and prevent audiences from recognizing the multiracial status of Asian Americans. The book's perceptive readings of popular media—movies, television shows, magazine articles, and artwork—indicate how and why the viewing public often fails to identify multiracial Asian Americans. Using actor Keanu Reeves, the Matrix trilogy, and golfer Tiger Woods as examples, the book suggests that this failure is tied to gender, sexuality, and post-racial politics. Also considering alternative images such as reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons, the television show Battlestar Galactica, and the artwork of Kip Fulbeck, this incisive study offers nuanced interpretations that open the door to a new and productive understanding of race in America.
Clare Pettitt
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199253203
- eISBN:
- 9780191719172
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253203.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
In May 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was held at Hyde Park in London, England. There was so much in this Exhibition that was copied, imitated, die-cast, ...
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In May 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was held at Hyde Park in London, England. There was so much in this Exhibition that was copied, imitated, die-cast, lithographed, electroplated, stereotyped, daguerreotyped, galvano-plastic, and so on, that the Exhibition itself posed questions about the relationship of monetary to aesthetic value and the status of the ‘real’ and ‘original’ in an emerging economy of reproduction and imitation. This chapter argues that the reform of the patent law at mid-19th century was profoundly affected by a literary lobby, including Charles Dickens and other members of the Society of Arts, which maintained the analogies with copyright law despite the evidence that industrial innovation had now become a largely corporate, and not an individual, endeavour. The chapter shows the crucial importance of the close juxtaposition of artworks and machines at the Exhibition of 1851 to the subsequent discussion of the status and intellectual property of artists and inventors.Less
In May 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was held at Hyde Park in London, England. There was so much in this Exhibition that was copied, imitated, die-cast, lithographed, electroplated, stereotyped, daguerreotyped, galvano-plastic, and so on, that the Exhibition itself posed questions about the relationship of monetary to aesthetic value and the status of the ‘real’ and ‘original’ in an emerging economy of reproduction and imitation. This chapter argues that the reform of the patent law at mid-19th century was profoundly affected by a literary lobby, including Charles Dickens and other members of the Society of Arts, which maintained the analogies with copyright law despite the evidence that industrial innovation had now become a largely corporate, and not an individual, endeavour. The chapter shows the crucial importance of the close juxtaposition of artworks and machines at the Exhibition of 1851 to the subsequent discussion of the status and intellectual property of artists and inventors.
