Afterness: Figures of Following in Modern Thought and Aesthetics (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts)

Gerhard Richter's groundbreaking study argues that the concept of "afterness" is a key figure in the thought and aesthetics of modernity. It pursues questions such as: What does it mean for something to "follow" something else? Does that which follows mark a clear break with what came before it, or does it in fact tacitly perpetuate its predecessor as a consequence of its inevitable indebtedness to the terms and conditions of that from which it claims to have departed? Indeed, is not the very act of breaking with, and then following upon, a way of retroactively constructing and fortifying that from which the break that set the movement of following into motion had occurred? The book explores the concept and movement of afterness as a privileged yet uncanny category through close readings of writers such as Kant, Kafka, Heidegger, Bloch, Benjamin, Brecht, Adorno, Arendt, Lyotard, and Derrida. It shows how the vexed concepts of afterness, following, and coming after shed new light on a constellation of modern preoccupations, including personal and cultural memory, translation, photography, hope, and the historical and conceptual specificity of what has been termed "after Auschwitz." The study's various analyses—across a heterogeneous collection of modern writers and thinkers, diverse historical moments of articulation, and a range of media—conspire to illuminate Lyotard's apodictic statement that "after philosophy comes philosophy. But it has been altered by the 'after.'" As Richter's intricate study demonstrates, much hinges on our interpretation of the "after." After all, our most fundamental assumptions concerning modern aesthetic representation, conceptual discourse, community, subjectivity, and politics are at stake. Columbia University Press Content: Introduction : the logic of afterness -- Afterness and modernity : a genealogical note -- Afterness and critique : a paradigmatic case -- Afterness and aesthetics : end without end -- Afterness and rettung : can anything be rescued by defending it? -- Afterness and translation : the politics of carrying across -- Afterness and the image (I) : unsettling photography -- Afterness and the image (II) : image withdrawal -- Afterness and experience (I) : can hope be disappointed? -- Afterness and experience (II) : crude thinking rethought -- Afterness and experience (III) : mourning, memory, and the fictions of anteriority -- Afterness and empty space : no longer and not yet -- Afterwards : after-words. Gerhard Richter's groundbreaking study argues that the concept of ""afterness"" is key to understanding the thought and aesthetics of modernity. He pursues such questions as what it means for something to ""follow"" something else and whether that which follows marks a clear break with what comes before. Or does that which follows tacitly perpetuate its predecessor as a consequence of its indebtedness to the terms and conditions of that from which it claims to have departed? Indeed, Richter asks, is not the very act of breaking with, and then following upon, a way of retroactively constru Gerhard Richter's study argues that the concept of 'afterness' is key to understanding the thought and aesthetics of modernity. He pursues such questions as what it means for something to 'follow' something else and whether what follows marks a clear break with what comes before. The book's various analyses illuminate Lyotard's apodictic statement that 'after philosophy comes philosophy. But it has been altered by the after'. The book demonstrates, that much hinges on our interpretation of the 'after' Contents 8 Introduction 12 1 Afterness and Modernity 38 2 Afterness and Critique 50 3 Afterness and Aesthetics 65 4 Afterness and Rettung 83 5 Afterness and Translation 99 6 Afterness and the Image (I) 129 7 Afterness and the Image (II) 150 8 Afterness and Experience (I) 165 9 Afterness and Experience (II) 180 10 Afterness and Experience (III) 197 11 Afterness and Empty Space 210 Afterwards 217 Acknowledgments 222 Notes 224 Index 258