Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity

Develops Heidegger's argument that art can help lead society beyond the nihilism of the modern age.

Iain D. Thomson (Author)

9780521172493, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 April 2011

266 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.36 kg

'… [Thomson] is a teacher, deeply concerned to impart, passionate about the subject, infectiously fascinating … This book is a circumspect, analytical, often profoundly critical, examination of the key role that art plays in Heidegger's philosophy. [It] convincingly demonstrates, in the most critically efficient terms, that it is not possible for the theoretical discourse of contemporary aesthetics to assimilate Heidegger without disturbing that discourse to its core. Thomson's alternative Heideggerian proposal is that art (more accurately, the 'ontological epiphany' that art elicits) provides one particularly powerful vehicle of awakening for this alternative mode of thinking; for art has the capacity to stimulate the kind of meditative thinking capable of transcending the dominant metaphysical infrastructure of late-modern cognition.' Kieran Cashell, Journal of Critical Realism

Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity offers a radical new interpretation of Heidegger's later philosophy, developing his argument that art can help lead humanity beyond the nihilistic ontotheology of the modern age. Providing pathbreaking readings of Heidegger's 'The Origin of the Work of Art' and his notoriously difficult Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), this book explains precisely what postmodernity meant for Heidegger, the greatest philosophical critic of modernity, and what it could still mean for us today. Exploring these issues, Iain D. Thomson examines several postmodern works of art, including music, literature, painting and even comic books, from a post-Heideggerian perspective. Clearly written and accessible, this book will help readers gain a deeper understanding of Heidegger and his relation to postmodern theory, popular culture and art.

Introduction: Heidegger, art, and postmodernity
1. Understanding ontotheology, or 'the history that we are'
2. Heidegger's critique of modern aesthetics
3. Heidegger's postmodern understanding of art
4. 'Even better than the real thing'? Postmodernity, the triumph of simulacra, and U2
5. Deconstructing the hero: the postmodern comic book
6. The philosophical fugue: understanding the structure and goal of Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning)
7. The danger and the promise of Heidegger, an American perspective
8. Against conclusions.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Western philosophy, from c 1900 - [HPCF]