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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

postmodern aesthetics « Previous | |Next »
August 5, 2007

I've stumbled upon this text about postmodernism. I know very little about it. In the section on postmodern aesthetics it is stated that:

Postmodern aesthetics is marked by an emphasis of the figural over the discursive. What this means is that postmodernism values the impact of art over the meaning of art, and the sensation of art over the interpretation of it. Such an emphasis on the impact of art relates well to Heidegger's wish to hear words as if for the first time, to "let their elementary forces" rise through.

And:
Such postmodern preferences, however, were first notably articulated by art critic Susan Sontag in the mid 1960's. Sontag claimed that modernism's favoring of the "intellect" in art, came "at the expense of energy and sensual capability". ...Again, this relates well to our discussion of Heidegger, who saw philosophy not as a means to learn anything more about being, but just to experience it, time and time again. Sontag believed that interpretation was "the revenge of the intellect upon art," and that a work of art should not be a "text," but rather another "sensory" product in the world... This focus of art as a "sensory" experience over and above an intellectual experience, led the way for postmodernism to favor the image over the narrative and the figural over the discursive (i.e. don't tell me about how happy you were, show me! don't tell me how brutal it was, show me!)

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:19 PM |