Aesthetics and Subjectivity [Paperback]

New, completely revised and re-written edition. Offers a detailed, but asccesible account of the vital German philosophical tradition of thinking about art and the self. Looks at recent historical research and contemporary arguments in philosophy and theory in the humanities, following the path of German philosophy from Kant, via Ficthe and Holderlin, the early Romantis, Schelling, Hegel, Scleimacher, to Nietzsche. Develops the approaches to subjectivity, aesthetics, music and language in relation to new theoretical developments bridging the divide between the continental and analytical traditions of philosophy. The huge growth of interest in German philosophy as a resource for re-thinking both literary and cultural theory, and contemporary philosophy will make this an indispensible read

Preface

Introduction

Aesthetics and modernity

Aesthetics and 'post-modernity'

1. Modern Philosophy and the Emergence of Aesthetic Theory: Kant

Self-consciousness, knowledge and freedom

The unification of nature

The purpose of beauty

The limits of beauty

2. German Idealism and Early German Romanticism

Thinking the Infinite

A 'new mythology'

3. Reflections on the Subject: Fichte, Holderlin and Novalis

Self and Other

Fichte

Holderlin

Novalis

4. Schelling: Art and the 'Organ of Philosophy'

Nature and philosophy

The development of consciousness

Intuition and concept

The 'organ of philosophy'

Mythology, art and modernity

Mythology, language and being

5. Hegel: the beginning of Aesthetic Theory and the end of Art

Which Hegel?

Self-recognition

Music and the Idea

Language, consciousness and being

The Idea as sensuous appearance

The prose of the modern world

Philosophy and art after Hegel

6. Schleiermacher: Art and Interpretation

Linguistic

The 'art oflã'