A Postmodern Ethical Perspective on the Sublime Totality
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
This paper first explores the relation of aesthetics to ethics from Jean-Luc Nancy’s perspective of “the sublime totality.” In illuminating “the sublime totality,” I argue in the early part that Kant must be considered as the pivotal figure for the debate on postmodern theory of aesthetics and ethics. Taking Kant’s discussion of the sublime in The Critique of Judgment as the basis of the argument, I first explore the binary opposition, or the principle of contrast between two mutually exclusive sides -- imagination and reason, pleasure and pain, and the finite ontological comprehension and the infinite. In so doing, I probe deeply into the sublime sentiment that arises in the middle dimension. Then I argue from a Levinasian ethical viewpoint that the sublime totality that takes place beyond the maximum of ontological emotions of the reader of a literary text is the ethical way in which the reader opens her self to the other, the wholly outside of her understanding of the text and of her comprehension as a whole. I not only discuss Levinasian ethics but examine the ideas of such ethical postmodernists as Lyotard and Deleuze. This is primarily a philosophical paper, and toward the end, I discuss Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” as an example of a short literary text to validate my philosophical argument
Abstract
This paper first explores the relation of aesthetics to ethics from Jean-Luc Nancy’s perspective of “the sublime totality.” In illuminating “the sublime totality,” I argue in the early part that Kant must be considered as the pivotal figure for the debate on postmodern theory of aesthetics and ethics. Taking Kant’s discussion of the sublime in The Critique of Judgment as the basis of the argument, I first explore the binary opposition, or the principle of contrast between two mutually exclusive sides -- imagination and reason, pleasure and pain, and the finite ontological comprehension and the infinite. In so doing, I probe deeply into the sublime sentiment that arises in the middle dimension. Then I argue from a Levinasian ethical viewpoint that the sublime totality that takes place beyond the maximum of ontological emotions of the reader of a literary text is the ethical way in which the reader opens her self to the other, the wholly outside of her understanding of the text and of her comprehension as a whole. I not only discuss Levinasian ethics but examine the ideas of such ethical postmodernists as Lyotard and Deleuze. This is primarily a philosophical paper, and toward the end, I discuss Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” as an example of a short literary text to validate my philosophical argument
참고문헌 (14)
- Allen, Edgar, "The Raven in : The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe", pp.943~946 (1938), The Modern Library
- Bauman, Zigmund, "Postmodern Ethics" (1993), Blackwell Publishing
- Burke, Edmund, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" (1990), Oxford UP
- Critchley, Simon, "The Ethics of Deconstruction; Derrida & Levinas" (1992), Blackwell Publishers
- Deleuze, Gilles, "Difference and Repetition. Trans. Paul Patton" (1994), Columbia UP
- Deleuze, Gilles, "The Logic of Sense" (1990), Columbia UP
- Deleuze, Gilles, "A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia" (1987), U of Minnesota P
- Kant, Immanuel, "The Critique of Judgment" (1952), Oxford UP
- Levinas, Emmanuel, "Reality and Its Shadow in : Collected Philosophical Papers", pp.1~13 (1987), Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
- Levinas, Emmanuel, "Otherwise Than Being Or Beyond Essence" (1991), Kluwer Academic Publishers
- Levinas, Emmanuel, "Totality and Infinity; An Essay on Exteriority" (1992), Duquesne UP
- Lyotard, Jean-Francois, "Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime" (1994), Standford UP
- Lyotard, Jean-Francois, "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge in : Theory and History of Literature" (1984), U of Minnesota P
- Nancy, Jean-Luc, "The Sublime Offering in : Of the Sublime: Presence in Question", pp.25~53 (1993), State University of New York P