The Aesthetic Dimension
Author | Herbert Marcuse |
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Original title | Die Permanenz der Kunst: Wider eine bestimmte marxistische Ästhetik |
Translator | Herbert Marcuse, Erica Sherover |
Country | Germany |
Language | German |
Subject | Aesthetics |
Published |
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Media type | |
Pages | 88 |
ISBN | 0-333-26674-9 |
Part of a series on the |
Frankfurt School |
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The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics (German: Die Permanenz der Kunst: Wider eine bestimmte marxistische Ästhetik) is a 1977 book on aesthetics by the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which the author provides an account of modern art's political implications and relationship with society at large.
It is the final major work by Marcuse, a founding member of the Frankfurt School.
Summary
The book is a response to previous writings within
Marcuse then pointed to what he perceived to be the successes of high culture and translated these to all areas of art. For Marcuse, art's promise of transcendence could only be fulfilled via a conceptual independence from society, but this independence is accessible through a host of media. The successful artist will attain truth in his work through detachment that results in symbolic representation. This successful art must necessarily invoke a longing for something utopian and the promise of ultimate happiness represented by beauty. This symbolic longing for fulfillment will awaken us from complacency.
Marcuse stated in the book's introduction that he considered literature the primary source of his influence for this system, but feels that the ideas would apply to music and visual arts as well.[2] He further stated that "This standard not only allows us to distinguish between "high" and "trivial" literature, opera and operetta, comedy and slapstick, but also between good and bad art within these genres."[2]
References
- ^ Richard Kazis. "Benjamin's '...Age of Mechanical Reproduction'". Jump Cut. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
- ^ a b The Aesthetic Dimension marginalutility.or