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Fascination with quotidian experience in modern art, literature, and philosophy promotes ecstatic forms of reflection on the very structure of the everyday world. Gosetti-Ferencei examines the ways in which modern art and literature enable a study of how we experience quotidian life. She shows that modernism, while exhibiting many strands of development, can be understood by investigating how its attentions to perception and expectation, to the common quality of things, or to childhood play gives way to experiences of 'ecstasis'--the stepping outside of the ordinary familiarity of the world.While phenomenology grounds this study (through Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Bachelard), what makes this book more than a treatise on phenomenological aesthetics is the way in which modernity itself is examined in its relation to the quotidian. Through the works of artists and writers such as Benjamin, Cezanne, Frost, Klee, Newman, Pollock, Ponge, Proust, Rilke, Robbe-Grillet, Rothko, Sartre, and Twombly, the world of quotidian life can be seen to harbor a latent ecstasis. The breakdown of the quotidian through and after modernism then becomes an urgent question for understanding art and literature in its capacity to further human experience, and it points to the limits of phenomenological explications of the everyday.
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question for understanding art and literature in its capacity to further human experience, and it points to the limits of phenomenological explications of the everyday.
is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Scholar at the University of Oxford. Her .. previous books include Heidegger, Hold-
twentieth-century works afresh with the ordinariness at the root of
of the everyday can bring about a ‘revitalized experience of the world.’ Her individual sightings are subtly crafted but ultimately have, like the overall argument, a persuasive simplicity. This is art and thought elegantly related to fundamental humane ends.” — t. j. reed, university of oxford
Burns. Cover art: Paul Cezanne, Apples, 1878–79, oil
“ The basic idea behind this marvelous book is simple: contrast the ordi-
on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The
nary and what defines escape from the ordinary, call that ecstasy. This
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund, 1961 (61.103). Images © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Literature
&
Philosophy
modern art, literature, and philosophy promotes ecstatic forms of reflection on the very structure of the everyday world.
human life, and to show how their defamiliarization and intensification
erlin, and the Subject of Poetic Language and a book of poetry, After the Palace
Fascination with quotidian experience in
Gosetti-Ferencei examines the ways in
idea is used to yield wonderfully challenging results. This virtuoso performance, erudite and very smart, is a book I wish I had written.” —david carrier, case western reserve university
which modern art and literature enable a
The Ecstatic Quotidian
Fordham University and a Clarendon
nomenology, poetry, and painting to connect major nineteenth- and
Phenomenological Sightings in Modern Art and Literature
jennifer anna gosetti-ferencei
“ Jennifer Gosetti-Ferencei’s study draws with equal command on phe-
Gosetti-Ferencei
continued from front flap
The Ecstatic
Quotidian
study of how we experience quotidian life. She shows that modernism, while exhibiting many strands of development, can be understood by investigating how its attentions to perception and expectation, to the common quality of things, or to childhood play gives way to experiences of ecstasis—the stepping outside of the ordinary fam