What do you think?
Rate this book
The Continental Aesthetics Reader
The Continental Aesthetics Reader is the first comprehensive anthology of classic writings on art and aesthetics from the major figures in Continental thought. The reader is clearly divided into six Nineteenth Century German Aesthetics * Phenomenology and Hermeneutics * Marxism and Critical Theory * Modernism * Poststucturalism and Postmodernism * Psychoanalysis and Feminism. Each section is clearly placed in its historical and philosophical context by Clive Cazeaux.
The readings featured are the most widely read and representative writings of each movement and are from the following major
Kant Sartre Benjamin Lyotard
Hegel Levinas Blanchot Deleuze
Nietzsche Marx Bloch Freud
Heidegger Lukacs Bataille Lacan
Dufrenne Adorno Foucault Kristeva
Bachelard Marcuse Barthes Irigaray
Merleau-Ponty Habermas Derrida Cixous
Gadamer Jameson de Man
Vattimo Simmel Baudrillard
Ideal for introductory courses in aesthetics, continental philosophy, art and visual studies, The Continental Aesthetics Reader provides a thorough introduction to some of the most influential writings on art and aesthetics from Kant to Derrida.
The readings featured are the most widely read and representative writings of each movement and are from the following major
Kant Sartre Benjamin Lyotard
Hegel Levinas Blanchot Deleuze
Nietzsche Marx Bloch Freud
Heidegger Lukacs Bataille Lacan
Dufrenne Adorno Foucault Kristeva
Bachelard Marcuse Barthes Irigaray
Merleau-Ponty Habermas Derrida Cixous
Gadamer Jameson de Man
Vattimo Simmel Baudrillard
Ideal for introductory courses in aesthetics, continental philosophy, art and visual studies, The Continental Aesthetics Reader provides a thorough introduction to some of the most influential writings on art and aesthetics from Kant to Derrida.
640 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 2000
15 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 23, 2010
A great collection of essays and introductory essays by the editor Clive Cazeaux to each historical grouping of essays. Two of my favorites are Nietzsche's amazing essay "On Truth & Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense" (I dare anyone to not be affected by the opening paragraph**) and Merleau-Ponty's essay "The Intertwining - The Chiasm."
**"In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history"—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die.
One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life. It is human, rather, and only its owner and producer gives it such importance, as if the world pivoted around it. But if we could communicate with the mosquito, then we would learn that he floats through the air with the same self-importance, feeling within itself the flying center of the world. There is nothing in nature so despicable or insignificant that it cannot immediately be blown up like a bag by a slight breath of this power of knowledge; and just as every porter wants an admirer, the proudest human being, the philosopher, thinks that he sees on the eyes of the universe telescopically focused from all sides on his actions and thoughts."
This is a different translation than the one in the book, but you get the idea.
**"In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history"—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die.
One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life. It is human, rather, and only its owner and producer gives it such importance, as if the world pivoted around it. But if we could communicate with the mosquito, then we would learn that he floats through the air with the same self-importance, feeling within itself the flying center of the world. There is nothing in nature so despicable or insignificant that it cannot immediately be blown up like a bag by a slight breath of this power of knowledge; and just as every porter wants an admirer, the proudest human being, the philosopher, thinks that he sees on the eyes of the universe telescopically focused from all sides on his actions and thoughts."
This is a different translation than the one in the book, but you get the idea.
September 4, 2013
I find it somewhat overwhelming to review anthologies. An albeit brief crack at this one: If you are interested in the intersections of art theory, marxist philosophy, German philosophy and cultural theory this is a great read, with classics as well as more obscure pieces.
April 23, 2017
My only critique is the complete lack of postcolonial thought present, as postcolonial theory has a LOT to say about aesthetics.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews