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Debates over the 'end of art' have tended to obscure Hegel's work on the arts themselves. Benjamin Rutter opens this study with a defence of art's indispensability to Hegel's conception of modernity; he then seeks to reorient discussion toward the distinctive values of painting, poetry, and the novel. Working carefully through Hegel's four lecture series on aesthetics, he identifies the expressive possibilities particular to each medium. Thus, Dutch genre scenes animate the everyday with an appearance of vitality; metaphor frees language from prose; and Goethe's lyrics revive the banal routines of love with imagination and wit. Rutter's important study reconstructs Hegel's view not only of modern art but of modern life and will appeal to philosophers, literary theorists, and art historians alike.
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Hegel on the Modern Arts Debates over the “end of art” have tended to obscure Hegel’s work on the arts themselves. Benjamin Rutter opens this study with a defense of art’s indispensability to Hegel’s conception of modernity; he then seeks to reorient the discussion toward the distinctive values of painting, poetry, and the novel. Working carefully through Hegel’s four lecture series on aesthetics, he identifies the expressive possibilities particular to each medium. Thus, Dutch genre scenes animate the everyday with an appearance of vitality; metaphor frees language from prose; and Goethe’s lyrics revive the banal routines of love with imagination and wit. Rutter’s important study reconstructs Hegel’s view not only of modern art but of modern life and will appeal to philosophers, literary theorists, and art historians alike. be n ja m i n ru t t e r teaches English at Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn, NY. His research interests include German Idealism, contemporary analytic aesthetics, and the philosophy of criticism. This is his first book.
MODERN EU ROPE A N PH I LOSOPH Y General Editor WA Y NE M A RT I N, University of Essex Advisory Board SE B A ST I A N G A RDNER , University College, London BE ATR IC E H A N - PI LE , University of Essex H A NS SLUG A , University of California, Berkeley
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