Hegel on the Modern Arts

Rutter revisits and resolves the 'end of art' debates while breaking new ground on Hegel's response to painting and literature.

Benjamin Rutter (Author)

9780521114011, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 July 2010

298 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.57 kg

'[W]ithout doubt the most important study of Hegel's conception of modern art published to date. It is also one of the best books on Hegel's aesthetics altogether … Rutter develops original and perceptive interpretations of (Hegel's views on) Dutch painting, lyric poetry and virtuosity in art, and he combines, in an exemplary manner, a subtle attention to philosophical distinctions with an equally subtle attention to specific works of art … [H]e has written one of the very best books in any language on Hegel's aesthetics.' Stephen Houlgate, British Journal for the History of Philosophy

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.

Introduction
1. The problem of a modern art
2. Painting life
3. The values of virtuosity
4. The lyric
5. Modern literature
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], History of art / art & design styles [AC]