Continental Aesthetics: Romanticism to Postmodernism: An Anthology

This comprehensive anthology provides a collection of classic and contemporary readings in continental aesthetics. Extending from romanticism through modernism to postmodernism, the volume includes landmark texts that have sparked renewed interest in aesthetics, including works by Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, Lukács, Habermas, Foucault, Kristeva, and Derrida.

The range and significance of the primary sources presented, together with the editors′ introductions, make this volume essential for anyone interested in aesthetics or philosophy of art.

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

Part I: Romanticism:.

Introduction.

1. The Critique of Judgement: Immanuel Kant.

2. Letter of an Aesthetic Education of Man: Friedrich Schiller.

3. The World as Will and Representation: Arthur Schoepenhauer.

4. Lectures on Aesthetics: G. W. F. Hegel.

5. The Philosophy of Art: Friedrich Wilhelm Jospeh von Schelling.

6. Biographia Literaria: Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

7. The Birth of Tragedy: Friedrich Nietzsche.

Part II: Modernism:.

Introduction.

8. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Walter Benjamin.

9. The Origin of the Work of Art: Martin Heidegger.

10. Lectures on Aesthetics: Ludwig Wittgenstein.

11. Leonardo da Vinci: Sigmund Freud.

12. The Ideology of Modernism: György Lukács.

13. The Aesthetic Dimension: Herbert Marcuse.

14. Aesthetic Theory: Theodor Adorno.

15. Discourse in the Novel: Mikhail Bakhtin.

16. Taste and the Reproduction of Art: Benedetto Croce.

17. What is Literature?: Jean–Paul Sartre.

18. Eye and Mind: Maurice Merleau–Ponty.

19. On Leveling the Genre Distinction between Philosophy and Literature: Jürgen Habermas.

20. Truth and Method: Hans–Georg Gadamer.

21. Metaphor and the Problem of Hermeneutics: Paul Ricoeur.

Part III: Postmodernism:.

Introduction.

22. Note on the Meaning of the Word "Post" and Answering the Question "What is Postmodernism?": Jean–François Lyotard.

23. The Death of the Author: Roland Barthes.

24. This Is Not a Pipe: Michel Foucault.

25. The Laugh of the Medusa: Hélène Cixous.

26. Travels in Hyperreality: Umberto Eco.

27. Simulations: Jean Baudrillard.

28. Economimesis: Jacques Derrida.

29. Literature One More Time: Maruice Blanchot.

30. The Malady of Grief: Duras: Julia Kristeva.

Index.

Richard Kearney is Professor of Philosophy at University College, Dublin and a visiting professor at Boston College. He has been a visiting lecturer at several universities across the US and Europe. His publications include: States of Mind (1995), Poetics of Modernity (1995), and The Wake of Imagination (1998).

David Rasmussen is Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. He is Founder and Editor–in–Chief of the journal Philosophy and Social Criticism (1978 ), the Philosophy and Social Criticism Book Series (1995 ), and Cultural Hermeneutics (1973 7). He is the author of The Handbook of Critical Theory (Blackwell, 1996) and Reading Habermas (Blackwell, 1990).

"Richard Kearney and David Rasmussen must be congratulated on their judicious selection of the main texts in continental aesthetics. Indeed, the result is so successful that the volume could as readily serve as a textbook for a course in continental philosophy as for a course in aesthetics. This volume surpasses all previous collections in the area." Robert Bernasconi, University of Memphis

"Collecting key selections from influential texts, this Anthology displays a wide range of important European theorists, past and present, and should prove very useful for courses in aesthetics and literary theory." Richard Shusterman, Temple University, author of Pragmatist Aesthetics