The Continental Aesthetics Reader

The Continental Aesthetics Reader brings together classic and contemporary writings on art and aesthetics from the major figures in continental thought. The second edition is clearly divided into seven sections:


Nineteenth-Century German Aesthetics
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Marxism and Critical Theory
Excess and Affect
Embodiment and Technology
Poststructuralism and Postmodernism
Aesthetic Ontologies.
Each section is clearly placed in its historical and philosophical context, and each philosopher has an introduction by Clive Cazeaux. An updated list of readings for this edition includes selections from Agamben, Butler, Guattari, Nancy, Virilio, and Žižek. Suggestions for further reading are given, and there is a glossary of over fifty key terms.
Ideal for introductory courses in aesthetics, continental philosophy, art, and visual studies, The Continental Aesthetics Reader provides a thorough introduction to some of the most influential writings on art and aesthetics from Kant and Hegel to Badiou and Rancière.

Clive Cazeaux is Reader in Aesthetics at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. His research interests are the philosophies of metaphor, visual thinking, visual arts research, and art-science practice. He is the author of Metaphor and Continental Philosophy: From Kant to Derrida (Routledge 2007).

Introduction Part 1: Nineteenth-Century German Aesthetics 1. Extracts from Critique of Judgment Emmanuel Kant 2. Extracts from Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art G. W. F. Hegel 3. On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense Friedrich Nietzsche Part 2: Phenomenology and Hermeneutics 4. The Origin of the Work of Art Martin Heidegger 5. What is Writing? Jean Paul Sartre 6. Reality and its Shadow Emmanuel Levinas 7. The World of the Aesthetic Object Mikel Dufrenne 8. The Dialectics of Outside and Inside Gaston Bachelard 9. Aesthetics and Hermeneutics Hans Georg Gadamer 10. What is a Text? Explanation and Understanding Paul Ricoeur 11. The Death or Decline of Art Gianni Vattimo Part 3: Marxism and Critical Theory 12. Private Property and Communism Karl Marx 13. Extracts from Minima Moralia Theodor W. Adorno 14. Nature and Revolution Herbert Marcuse 15. Discourse in the Novel (Heteroglossia in the Novel) Mikhail Bakhtin 16. Modernity versus Postmodernity Jürgen Habermas Part 4: Embodiment and Technology 17. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin 18. Eye and Mind Maurice Merleau-Ponty 19. Cosi Fan Tutti Luce Irigaray 20. The New Aesthetic Paradigm Félix Guattari 21. Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion Judith Butler 22. The Aesthetics of Disappearance Paul Virilio Part 5: Excess and Affect 23. The Unconscious Sigmund Freud 24. The Original Experience Maurice Blanchot 25. Sanctity, Eroticism, and Solitude Georges Bataille 26. The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud Jacques Lacan 27. Approaching Abjection Julia Kristeva 28. Pornography, Nostalgia, Montage Slavoj Zizek Part 6: Poststructuralism and Postmodernism 29. The Death of the Author Roland Barthes 30. What is an Author? Michel Foucault 31. The Parergon Jacques Derrida 32. The Resistance to Theory Paul de Man 33. The Evil Demon of Images Jean Baudrillard 34. The Sublime and the Avant-Garde Jean-Francois Lyotard 35. The Last Painting or the Portrait of God Hélène Cixous Part 7: Aesthetic Ontologies 36. Percept, Affect, and Concept G Deleuze & F Guattari 37. Art, a Fragment Jean-Luc Nancy 38. The Melancholy Angel Giorgio Agamben 39. Art and Philosophy Alain Badiou 40. Aesthetics as Politics Jacques Rancière. Index