(DOWNLOAD) "Jan Mieszkowski. Labors of Imagination: Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser (Book Review)" by Studies in Romanticism ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Jan Mieszkowski. Labors of Imagination: Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser (Book Review)
- Author : Studies in Romanticism
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 198 KB
Description
Jan Mieszkowski. Labors of Imagination: Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006. Pp. xiv+226. $55.00. In the study of politics and aesthetics, which in its modern form alone has been with us at least since Kant and Schiller, nothing appears to have been determined with any certainty, not even it seems, the apparently straightforward, quantifiable matter of whether or not the topic is being much discussed. The Politics of Aesthetics, a recently translated text by Jacques Ranciere (2006), contains the following supportive blurb written by the philosopher J. M. Bernstein: "Locating the political significance of art has not only gone out of fashion, it has in recent years become a source of embarrassment. No one has argued against this repression with more precision, nuance, and undeniable force than Jacques Ranciere." Locating the politics of art is "out of fashion ... a source of embarrassment," subject even to a "repression"--really? Certainly one hears of attempts to return to supposedly traditional, humanistic concerns with aesthetics that might transcend politics. But on the whole, as Marc Redfield has commented in his identically titled The Politics of Aesthetics of a few years ago (2003), the criticism of the last several decades in literary and cultural studies at least has provided a great deal of the sort of "hermeneutics of suspicion" whereby the supposedly disinterested characteristic of the aesthetic is seen to be determined by some sort of underlying political agenda (2-3). In Labors of Imagination: Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser, Jan Mieszkowski does not comment upon this seemingly odd ambiguity with respect to whether or not a discourse on politics and aesthetics is even happening. One senses, however, that should he stumble across a remark like Bernstein's he would deeply appreciate the fundamental indeterminacy it elicits--are we talking about this or aren't we?--and that it would fit well with the overall views argued for in his compelling and important study.
 "Jan Mieszkowski. Labors of Imagination: Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser (Book Review)" by Studies in Romanticism ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}