Aesthetics of Resistance: On the Politics of Aesthetic Thought in Hegel’s Theory of Art and Peter Weiss’ Novel The Aesthetics of Resistance Cover Image

Aesthetics of Resistance: On the Politics of Aesthetic Thought in Hegel’s Theory of Art and Peter Weiss’ Novel The Aesthetics of Resistance
Aesthetics of Resistance: On the Politics of Aesthetic Thought in Hegel’s Theory of Art and Peter Weiss’ Novel The Aesthetics of Resistance

Author(s): Franziska Wildt
Subject(s): Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Aesthetics
Published by: Fakultet za medije i komunikacije - Univerzitet Singidunum
Keywords: aesthetics; Hegel; Peter Weiss; The Aesthetics of Resistance; literature; politics; aestheticization.

Summary/Abstract: Through a confrontation of Hegel’s Lectures On Aesthetics and Peter Weiss’ novel The Aesthetics of Resistance this paper criticizes the theory of aesthetics for its lack of aesthetic thinking. Hegel’s theory of aesthetics is introduced as a paradigmatic case of this problem, while The Aesthetics of Resistance is read as an attempt to “re-aestheticize” the thought of aesthetics. Following a brief introduction and contextualization of the problem within the theoretical discourse on “aestheticization”, Hegel’s theory is analyzed and then contrasted to The Aesthetics of Resistance. The analysis is carried out in three steps, which correspond to three forms in which Hegel’s lectures represent the movement that leads from the aesthetic form of art to the – in his view – no longer aesthetic form of aesthetics. This analysis is finally confronted with a reading of The Aesthetics of Resistance that reverses the movement delineated by Hegel’s theory through aestheticizing aesthetics.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 1-13
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English