The Narrowest Path: Antinomies of Self-Determination in Four Aesthetic Studies

A strategic reconstruction of modern German thought from the standpoint of aesthetic theory. Focusing on seminal texts by Kleist, Hegel, Marx and Adorno, The Narrowest Path reveals the characteristically modern, revolutionary project of freedom-as-autonomy to be unresolvably antinomic. Front Cover ‎Half-Title Page ‎Series Title Page ‎Title Page ‎Copyright Page ‎Contents ‎Acknowledgements ‎Abbreviations ‎Introduction. ‘Not Truth in History, But History in Truth’ ‎1. The Opus Against the Apparatus ‎2. The Aesthetic Equation and Its Antinomy ‎3. Antinomic of Form: The Birth of Art’s Double Character ‎4. The Special Problematic: What is an Aesthetic Antinomy? ‎5. The General Problematic: Structure Faces History ‎6. A Note on Kleist’s Novella ‎Chapter 1. The Antinomic Act of Literature in Michael Kohlhaas ‎1. Prologue: The Desire of Michael Kohlhaas ‎2. Kohlhaas Follows His Thing: A Failed Forensics ‎3. Luther Stops Kohlhaas: On the Historical Plateau ‎4. The Gypsy Woman Moves Kohlhaas: A Fantastic Tragedy ‎5. Kohlhaas Following Kohlhaas: What Is a Literary Act? ‎Chapter 2. The Human Antinomy in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right ‎1. Introduction ‎2. The Human Antinomy and Its Personal Resolution ‎2.1. The Human Antinomy ‎2.2. The Form and Content of Free Will ‎3. The Form of the Person: Infinite Self-Relation ‎3.1. The Genesis of the Person: Hired Labour ‎4. The Personal Antinomy and Its Political Resolution ‎4.1. Excursus: The State and World History: Towards Politics Proper ‎Chapter 3. The Political Antinomy in Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte ‎1. Introduction ‎2. The Constituted Form: The Proclaimed Republic ‎3. The Constituent Content: The Presuppositions of the Republic ‎4. The Antinomy of the Republic: The Politics of Capital ‎5. The Resolution to Come ‎Chapter 4. Figuring the Answer: A Reconstruction of Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory ‎1. Problematic. Art’s Double Character as Antinomy ‎2. Analytic of the Autonomous: Form as Separation ‎2.1. Separation from Genesis as Origination ‎2.2. Separation from Genesis as Organization ‎3. Analytic of the Social: Form as Repetition ‎3.1. Repetition of Genesis: The Fetish Form ‎3.2. Repetition of Genesis: The Commodity Form ‎4. Dialectic. The Sublime and The Ridiculous: Form as Participation ‎4.1. The Rhythm of the Enigma ‎4.2. Figuring the Answer: Remembering the Loss ‎Conclusion: Around the Abyss ‎Bibliography ‎Index Back Cover