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

Authors

  • Franziska Wildt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.385

Keywords:

aesthetics, Hegel, Peter Weiss, The Aesthetics of Resistance, aestheticization, critical theory, art

Abstract

hrough 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.

 

Article received: April 28, 2020; Article accepted: June 23, 2020; Published online: September 15, 2020; Original scholarly paper

Author Biography

Franziska Wildt

Goethe University Frankfurt am Main,
Germany

Franziska Wildt studied Philosophy, Psychology, Comparative Literature, and Visual Arts at Goethe University, Frankfurt; Columbia University, New York; University of the Arts, Berlin; and Städelschule, Frankfurt. She completed her master's degree in philosophy 2019 and is currently working on her dissertation at the Institute for Social Research and at Goethe University, Frankfurt. Since spring 2019 she is also a research assistant at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where she is teaching and researching in the fields of aesthetics, art, and philosophy.

References

Adorno, Theodor W. Ästhetische Theorie. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 2003.

Benjamin, Walter. “Was ist das epische Theater?” In: Sven Kramer. Walter Benjamin: Der Autor als Produzent: Aufsätze zur Literatur, 218–27. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2012.

Benjamin, Walter. Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 2007.

Brombach, Ilka, Dirk Setton, and Cornelia Temsvári, ed. “Ästhetisierung”: Der Streit um das Ästhetische in Politik, Religion und Erkenntnis. Zürich: Diaphanes, 2010.

de Man, Paul. “Hegel über das Erhabene.” In: Die Ideologie des Ästhetischen, edited by Christoph Menke, 59–82. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1993.

de Man, Paul. “Zeichen und Symbol.” In “Hegels Ästhetik.” In: Die Ideologie des Ästhetischen, edited by Christoph Menke, 39–58. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1993.

Foucault, Michel. Der Wille zum Wissen. Sexualität und Wahrheit I. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1977.

Foucault, Michel. Diskurs und Wahrheit: Berkeley–Vorlesungen 1983. Berlin: Merve, 1996.

Habermas, Jürgen. “Philosophy and Science as Literature?” In: Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philosophical Essays, 222–43. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1992.

Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik I. Werke, Bd. 13, edited by Eva Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1986.

Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik: Dritter Teil: Die Poesie, edited by Rüdiger Bubner. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1971.

Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik: Erster und Zweiter Teil, edited by Rüdiger Bubner. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1971.

Hegel, G. W. F. Enzyclopädie der Philosophischen Wissenschaften III: Philosophie des Geistes. Werke, Bd.10. Frankfurt/M. Suhrkamp, 1970.

Horkheimer, Max, Theodor W. Adorno. Dialektik der Aufklärung. Philosophische Fragmente. Frankfurt/Main: S. Fischer, 2013.

Horn, Eva, Menke Bettine, Menke, Christoph, ed. Literatur als Philosophie – Philosophie als Literatur. München: Wilhelm Fink, 2006.

Menke, Christoph. Die Kraft der Kunst. Berlin: Suhrkmap, 2013.

Menke, Christoph. Kraft: Ein Grundbegriff ästhetischer Anthropologie. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 2008.

Platon. Politeia. In (idem): Werke in zehn Bänden, Bd V, Karlheinz Hüser, Frankfurt/M.: Insel-Verlag 1991.

Rancière, Jacques. Die Aufteilung des Sinnlichen. Die Politik der Kunst und ihre Paradoxien. Berlin: b-books, 2006.F.

Rebentisch, Juliane. “Theatrokratie und Theater. Literatur als Philosophie nach Benjamin und Brecht.” In: Literatur als Philosophie – Philosophie als Literatur, edited by Eva Horn, Bettine Menkem Christoph Menke, 297–318. München: Wilhelm Fink, 2006.

Rebentisch, Juliane. Die Kunst der Freiheit. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2012.

Schulz, Genia. “Die Ästhetik des Widerstands”: Versionen des Indirekten in Peter Weiss' Roman. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1986. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-03220-1

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Kritik der postkolonialen Vernunft. Hin zu einer Geschichte der verrinnenden Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2014.

Weiss, Peter. Die Ästhetik des Widerstands. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 2005.

Downloads

Published

15.09.2020

How to Cite

Wildt, F. (2020). Aesthetics of Resistance: On the Politics of Aesthetic Thought in Hegel’s Theory of Art and Peter Weiss’ Novel The Aesthetics of Resistance. AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, (22), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i22.385

Issue

Section

Main Topic: Vertigo Aesthetics: Between Art – Resistance –Technology – Politics