Gadamer's Hermeneutical Aesthetics: Art as a Performative, Dynamic, Communal Event (Routledge Research in Aesthetics)

This book offers a sustained scholarly analysis of Gadamer’s reflections on art and our experience of art. It examines fundamental themes in Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics such as play, festival, symbol, contemporaneity, enactment, art’s performative ontology, and hermeneutical identity. The first two chapters focus on Gadamer’s critical appropriation and movement beyond Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics. (Chapter 2 also includes a coda on Heidegger’s influence.) The final three chapters argue for the continued relevance of Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics by bringing his claims into conversation with contemporary art and music, as well as the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions of the Artworld and art praxis. The ethical and sociopolitical aspects of art- and music-making are given particular attention in chapters devoted to 20th-century African American artist Romare Bearden, Banksy’s street art, and a range of jazz expressions, from traditional jazz to the complex practice of free jazz. Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Aesthetics will appeal to researchers and advanced students working on Gadamer, philosophical hermeneutics, continental philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of contemporary art and music. Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Notes Chapter 1: Kantian Resonances and Dissonances Gadamer’s Dialogue with Kant Gadamer’s Critique of Aesthetic Consciousness Gadamer’s Post- Truth and Method Dialogue with Kant Notes Chapter 2: Hegelian Resonances and Dissonances (and a Heideggerian Coda) Hegel and Art as a Thing of the Past Gadamerian Riffs on Hegelian Themes: Thinking with and Beyond Hegel Art as Festival A Heideggerian Coda Gadamer and Heidegger on Verweilen, die Weile, and Vollzug Notes Chapter 3: Romare Bearden’s Collages and Art’s Address: On World De-fabrication and Reconfiguration Bearden’s Art: Subversive Hybridity and “Harsh Poetry” Bearden’s Three Folk Musicians, Social Construction, and “Riffing” on and Beyond Picasso Gadamer’s Critique of Aesthetic Consciousness and Aesthetic Differentiation Gadamer on Participatory Aesthetic Engagement, Self-Understanding, and Tragedy Contemporaneity and the Task of Integration Concluding Remarks Notes Chapter 4: Banksy, Street Art, and a Benjaminian Coda A Brief Introduction to Banksy’s Street Art Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Aesthetics and Banksy’s Street Art Banksy’s Street Art: Provocations, Controversies, and Complicities A Critical Reading of Nicholas Riggle’s Definition of Street Art Benjaminian Coda Notes Chapter 5: It’s All about (Hermeneutical) Movement: Play, Leeway, Difference, and a Coda on Free Jazz Play ( Spiel) Leeway (Spielraum) and the Rules of Play Hermeneutic Identity Playing and Being Played The Spirit of and Space-for-Play Play’s Tasks, Tensions, and Freedom Art’s Play as Presentation for Someone Art’s Transformation into Gebilde Art as a Transformation into the True Hermeneutic Identity and the Indispensability of Difference in Hermeneutic and Aesthetic Experience Gadamerian Hermeneutics and Free Jazz Difference, Others, and Hermeneutical Movement Notes Bibliography Index "This book offers a sustained scholarly analysis of Gadamer's reflections on art and our experience of art. It examines fundamental themes in Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics such as play, festival, symbol, contemporaneity, enactment, art's performative ontology, and hermeneutical identity. The first two chapters focus on Gadamer's critical appropriation and movement beyond Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics (and includes a coda on Heidegger's influence). The final three chapters argue for the continued relevance of Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics by bringing his claims into conversation with contemporary art and music, as well as the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions of the Artworld and art-praxis. The ethical and sociopolitical aspects of art- and music-making are given particular attention in chapters devoted to 20th century African American artist Romare Bearden, Banksy's street art, and a range of jazz expressions, from traditional jazz to the complex practice of free jazz. Gadamer's Hermeneutical Aesthetics will appeal to researchers and advanced students working on Gadamer, philosophical hermeneutics, continental philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of contemporary art and music"-- Provided by publisher