
The Sense of Semblance : Philosophical Analyses of Holocaust Art.
Title:
The Sense of Semblance : Philosophical Analyses of Holocaust Art.
Author:
Pickford, Henry W.
ISBN:
9780823250318
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (296 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Introduction -- CHAPTER ONE Mandelshtam's Meridian -- CHAPTER TWO Conflict and Commemoration -- CHAPTER THREE The Aesthetics of Historical Quotation -- CHAPTER FOUR The Aesthetic-Historical Imaginary -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Abstract:
Holocaust artworks intuitively must fulfill at least two criteria: artistic (lest they be merely historical documents) and historical (lest they distort the Holocaust or become merely artworks). The Sense of Semblance locates this problematic within philosophical aesthetics, as a version of the conflict between aesthetic autonomy and heteronomy, and argues that AdornoGs dialectic of aesthetic semblance describes the normative demand that artworks maintain a dynamic tension between the two. The Sense of Semblance aims to move beyond familiar debates surrounding postmodernism by demonstrating the usefulness of contemporary theories of meaning and understanding, including those from the analytic tradition. Pickford shows how the causal theory of names, the philosophy of tacit knowledge, the analytic philosophy of quotation, SartreGs theory of the imaginary, the epistemology of testimony, and Walter BenjaminGs dialectical image can help explicate how individual artworks fulfill artistic and historical desiderata. In close readings of CelanGs poetry, Holocaust memorials in Berlin, the quotational artist Heimrad B+cker, Claude LanzmannGs film Shoah, and Art SpiegelmanGs graphic novel Maus, Pickford offers interpretations that, in their precision, specificity, and clarity, inaugurate a dialogue between contemporary analytic philosophy and contemporary art. The Sense of Semblance is the first book to incorporate contemporary analytic philosophy in interpretations of art and architecture, literature, and film about the Holocaust.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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