Art, Emotion and Ethics is a systematic investigation of the relation of art to morality, a topic that has been of central and recurring interest to the philosophy of art since Plato. Berys Gaut explores the various positions that have been taken in this debate, and argues that an artwork is always aesthetically flawed insofar as it possesses a moral defect that is aesthetically relevant. Three main arguments are developed for this view; these involve showing how moralgoodness is itself a kind of beauty, that artworks can teach us about morality and that this is often an aesthetic merit in them, and that our emotional responses to works of art are properly guided in part by moral considerations. Art, Emotion and Ethics also contains detailed interpretations of a wide range of artworks, including Rembrandt's Bathsheba and Nabokov's Lolita, which show that ethical criticism can yield rich and plausible accounts of individual works. Gaut develops a new theory of the nature of aesthetic value, explores how art can teach us about the world and what we morally ought to do by guiding our imaginings, and argues that we can have genuine emotions towards people andevents that we know are merely fictional.Characterised by its clarity and sustained argument, this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the relation of art to morality.
Richard Badenhausen examines the crucial role that collaboration with other writers played in the development of T. S. Eliot's works from the earliest poetry and unpublished prose to the late plays. He demonstrates Eliot's dependence on collaboration in order to create, but also his struggle to accept the implications of the process. In case-studies of Eliot's collaborations, Badenhausen reveals for the first time the complexities of Eliot's theory and practice of collaboration. Examining a wide range of familiar and uncollected materials, Badenhausen explores Eliot's social, psychological, textual encounters with collaborators such as Ezra Pound, John Hayward, Martin Browne, and Vivienne Eliot, among others. Finally, this study shows how Eliot's later work increasingly accommodates his audience as he attempted to apply his theories of collaboration more broadly to social, cultural, and political concerns..
Literary fiction is of crucial importance in human life. It is a source of understanding and insight into the nature of the human condition, yet ever since Plato, philosophers have struggled to provide a plausible explanation of how this can be the case. For surely the fictionality - the sheer invented character - of the literary text means that fiction presents not our world, but other worlds (what we might call ')? In Fiction and the Weave ofLife, John Gibson offers a novel and intriguing account of the relationship between literature and everyday life, and shows how literature can give us an understanding of our world without literally being about our world.
In this innovative study, Professor Tahar Labib examines how Turks, Europeans, Christians and Iranians have been represented in the arts, opinions and cultures of the Arab world. Conversely, it also explores the intellectual representation of "The Arab" in other cultures.
One of the first French intellectuals to take a systematic interest in questions of language and meaning, Maurice Blanchot (1907--2003) substantially influenced such thinkers as Deleuze, Foucault, Barthes, Levinas, and Derrida. Until recently, Blanchot's work remained largely unknown outside France, in part because of its complexity and in part because Blanchot shunned intellectual celebrity. Over the past decade, however, nearly all of Blanchot's books have been translated into English, and worldwide interest in his fiction, cultural criticism, and philosophy has increased dramatically. Kevin Hart and Geoffrey H. Hartman bring together essays by prominent scholars from a range of disciplines to focus on Blanchot's diverse concerns: literature, art, community, politics, ethics, spirituality, and the Holocaust. The volume takes its title from Blanchot's idea that literature is "a power of contestation: contestation of the established power, contestation of what is..., contestation of language and of the forms of literary language, finally contestation of itself as power." Tracing this concept as a central theme of Blanchot's writings, and exploring its scope and ambiguity, the contributors bring this seminal, but formidably difficult, intellect into sharper focus. Contributors: Gerald L. Bruns, University of Notre Dame; Leslie Hill, University of Warwick; Michael Holland, St Hugh's College, Oxford; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, University of Strasbourg; Vivian Liska, University of Antwerp; Jill Robbins, Emory University, and the editors.
This collection of 8 essays (+ introduction) by senior literary scholars offers a broad range of perspectives on the thought of Maurice Blanchot, one of the most influential of the mid-20th-century French literary theorists whose reputation has recently been on the rise in this country.
The Long Life invites the reader to range widely from the writings of Plato through to recent philosophical work by Derek Parfit, Bernard Williams, and others, and from Shakespeare's King Lear through works by Thomas Mann, Balzac, Dickens, Beckett, Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin, to more recent writing by Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, and J. M. Coetzee.Helen Small argues that if we want to understand old age, we have to think more fundamentally about what it means to be a person, to have a life, to have (or lead) a good life, to be part of a just society. What did Plato mean when he suggested that old age was the best place from which to practice philosophy - or Thomas Mann when he defined old age as the best time to be a writer - and were they right? If we think, as Aristotle did, that a good life requires the active pursuit of virtue, howwill our view of later life be affected? If we think that lives and persons are unified, much as stories are said to be unified, how will our thinking about old age differ from that of someone who thinks that lives and/or persons can be strongly discontinuous? In a just society, what constitutes afair distribution of limited resources between the young and the old? How, if at all, should recent developments in the theory of evolutionary senescence alter our thinking about what it means to grow old?This is a groundbreaking book, deep as well as broad, and likely to alter the way in which we talk about one of the great social concerns of our time - the growing numbers of those living to be old, and the growing proportion of the old to the young.
In this warm and accessibly written study - the first major consideration of old age in Western philosophy and literature since Simone de Beauvoir's The Coming of Age - Helen Small ranges widely from the writings of Plato through to recent philosophical work by Derek Parfit, Bernard Williams and others, and from Shakespeare's King Lear through works by Thomas Mann, Balzac, Dickens, Beckett, Stevie Smith, Larkin, to more recent writing by Bellow,Roth, and Coetzee. A groundbreaking book that is likely to alter the way in which we talk about one of the great social concerns of our time.
"Ted Hughes (1930-98) was one of the giants of twentieth-century poetry. His vast and multifaceted output, which challenged and stimulated generations of readers, is now a permanent monument. His voice, once heard, is unforgettable." "But Hughes was also a prolific letter-writer, with a private voice no less original and compelling. He described letter-writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and the Letters offers a selection from the thousands he wrote over a period of fifty years." "Hughes's dedication to poetry is plain from the out-set, whether he is addressing members of his Yorkshire family or those Cambridge University friends who were to become lifelong correspondents. As his own achievement as a writer grows, so does the extent of his acquaintance, and it is possible to see how intensely this most private of individual was attuned, not just to his own preoccupations, but to other lives and to the theatre of events in the wider world." "Reports on works in progress - Lupercal, Wodwo, Crow, Moortown, Gaudete, River, Remains of Elmet and Birthday Letters - together with metaphysical speculation, social comment (his remarks on England and English are particularly telling) and advice to friends and strangers are all issued copiously. Accounts of fishing expeditions sit side by side with intimate disclosures, comic improvisation, or passages of meditated wisdom." "This selection includes correspondence from Hughes's marriage to Sylvia Plath, and his letters to those he trusted reveal much about his feelings for her. There are letters, too, to Assia Wevill, who was the mother of his third child and who, like Plath, killed herself. Beyond that, though, the Letters offers a detailed picture of a visionary, questing and prodigiously creative individual - responding in full tilt to the challenges of an incomparably eventful life and career."--BOOK JACKET.
Conceiving the City looks at how major writers and artists - Henry James, Monet, Whistler - as well as less familiar figures represented London in fiction, poetry, essays, and art. It shows that late-Victorian fin-de-siècle London emerged as a focus for dynamic, explicitly modern art as writers and artists broke with earlier tradition and bent realism into exciting new shapes, from naturalism to impressionism and symbolism.
Conceiving the City is an innovative study of the ways in which a generation of late-Victorian novelists, poets, painters, and theoreticians attempted to represent London in literature and art. Breaking away from the language and style of Dickens and the static panorama paintings of William Powell Frith, major figures such as Henry James and J. M. Whistler, and, crucially, less-celebrated authors such as Arthur Machen, Edwin Pugh, and George Egerton bent realism intoexciting new shapes. In the naturalism of George Gissing and Arthur Morrison, the fragmentary impressions of Ford Madox Ford, and the brooding mystery of Alvin Langdon Coburn's photogravures, London emerged as a focus for dynamic, explicitly modern art. Although many of these insights would be dismissed or at leastdownplayed by subsequent generations, the ideas evolved during the period from 1870 to 1914 anticipate not only the work of high modernists such as Eliot and Woolf, but also that of later urban theorists such as Foucault and de Certeau, and the novels and travelogues of contemporary London writers Peter Ackroyd and Iain Sinclair. Nicholas Freeman recovers a sense of late-Victorian London as a subject for dynamic theoretical and aesthetic experiments, and shows, in stimulating analyses of ConanDoyle, H. G. Wells, Arthur Symons, and others how much of our understanding of urban space we owe to eminent (and not so eminent) Victorian figures. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book restores a much-needed historical perspective to our engagement with the metropolis.
Although the idea that literature can enrich us as human beings has in recent years been derided, this ground-breaking book re-conceptualises humanism as a way of thinking about literature and literary value. The book is at the forefront of re-emerging debates in literary studies about aesthetic value.
Andy Mousley examines through a wide range of Shakespeares plays the conditions under which human beings flourish or perish. He discusses love, ethics, emotion, vulnerability and humility, among other topics, as part of his argument that Shakespeare continually strives to reclaim the human from complete dissolution.
Can Shakespeare help us with the question of how to live? Surely modern scepticism has put paid to the faith in the universally valid wisdom of sages? Re-Humanising Shakespeareprovocatively argues that although Shakespeare himself contributed to the foundationless world of modernity, his work can still serve as a source of existential wisdom and guidance.Differentiating literary humanism from anti-humanist caricatures of humanist thought, the book explores through close readings of Shakespeare's plays the conditions under which human beings flourish or perish. Love, ethics, emotion, vulnerability and humility are amongst the topics discussed as part of the book's argument that Shakespeare is continually at pains to reclaim the human from its complete liquefaction. Working with as well as against the trends associated with 'Theory', the book engages with sceptical perspectives by showing how Shakespeare unsettles belief in a fixed human nature, but simultaneously finds protection in his work against the total alienation of human beings from themselves.This distinctive book discusses plays across all the major Shakespearean genres, from comedy and history play to tragedy and romance. Given the range and originality of its approach, Re-Humanising Shakespearewill make absorbing reading for all those interested in Shakespeare, ethics and questions of literary value.
Using fifty international case studies of new, iconic campaigns this book examines current and future trends in advertising and demonstrates how advertising can succeed in a multi-media age.
From Ads to Iconsexplores the current and future direction of advertising. The book is divided into two parts. Part one comprises 50 international case studies of new and iconic advertising campaigns with profiles, analysis, a summary of essential points that can be learnt from each and suggestions for further reading. Cases include Sibirsky Bereg, YouTube, Singapore Cancer Society and Amex. Part two provides a review and analysis of the changing media landscape. Throughout, the book traces the development of established advertising techniques and traditional media, to experimentation with digital media to respond to the need to create new channels through which to reach customers.
'Ads to Icons' examines trends in advertising. Through 50 international case studies of new and iconic advertising campaigns, author Paul Springer identifies why they were successful and analyses their contribution to the continued development of advertising.
Ads to Icons introduces new approaches to advertising that go beyond traditional TV/press/billboard communications. It argues that in an age of media saturation and far better customer information, advertising no longer needs to push information at customers. Instead, the book features cases of "pull" advertising -- digital, live events and social networks formed as a response to an advertising brief. Paul Springer shows how advertising can still rise above the noise and clutter of mass communication to make people take notice. Quoting fifty benchmark cases from five continents, he considers a variety of new advertising methods, including in-game and interactive digital advertising, "flash" stores, and other unified on/offline campaigns. He explains why those campaigns were successful and analyzes their contribution to the field. Examples include campaigns by Nike, Mastercard, Cadbury, Ford, IKEA, and Sony Ericsson.
"Paul Springer clearly knows his subject. It does make for fascinating reading. Paul's book contains lots of varied facts about each campaign, and gives an insight into an industry that pervades our life every day". Bucks Free Press
From Ads to Iconsexplores the current and future direction of advertising. the book is divided into two parts. Part one comprises 50 international case studies of new and iconic advertising campaigns with profiles, analysis, a summary of essential points that can be learnt from each and suggestions for further reading. Cases include Sibirsky Bereg, YouTube, Singapore Cancer Society and Amex. Part two provides a review and analysis of the changing media landscape. Throughout, the book traces the development of established advertising techniques and traditional media, to experimentation with digital media to respond to the need to create new channels through which to reach customers.
From Ads to Iconsexplores the current and future direction of advertising.The book is divided into two parts. Part one comprises 50 international case studies of new and iconic advertising campaigns with profiles, analysis, a summary of essential points that can be learnt from each and suggestions for further reading. Cases include Sibirsky Bereg, YouTube, Singapore Cancer Society and Amex. Part two provides a review and analysis of the changing media landscape. Throughout, the book traces the development of established advertising techniques and traditional media, to experimentation with digital media to respond to the need to create new channels through which to reach customers.
Review and analysis of the developing media landscape 50 international case studies showcasing new and iconic advertising including: Sibirsky Bereg; YouTube; Singapore Cancer Society; and Amex Companion website www.springerlinks.com will update key cases and serve as a discussion forum
Using fifty international case studies of new, iconic campaigns this book examines current and future trends in advertising and demonstrates how advertising can succeed in a multi-media age.
Review and analysis of the developing media landscape 50 international case studies showcasing new and iconic advertising including: Sibirsky Bereg; YouTube; Singapore Cancer Society; and Amex Companion website www.springerlinks.com will update key cases and serve as a discussion forum
Springer shows how advertising can still rise above the noise and clutter of mass communication to make people take notice. Quoting 50 benchmark cases from five continents, he considers a variety of new advertising methods, including in-game and interactive digital advertising, "flash" stores, and other unified on/offline campaigns.
Are Jane Austen and Charles Darwin the two great English empiricists of the nineteenth century? Peter W. Graham poses this question as he brings these two icons of nineteenth-century British culture into intellectual conversation in his provocative new book. Graham shows that while the one is generally termed a naturalist (Darwin's preferred term for himself) and the other a novelist, these characterizations are at least partially interchangeable, as each author possessed skills that would serve well in either arena. Both Austen and Darwin are naturalists who look with a sharp, cold eye at the concrete particulars of the world around them. Both are in certain senses novelists who weave densely particularized and convincingly grounded narratives that convey their personal observations and perceptions to wide readerships. When taken seriously, the words and works of Austen and Darwin encourage their readers to look closely at the social and natural worlds around them and form opinions based on individual judgment rather than on transmitted opinion.Graham's four interlocked essays begin by situating Austen and Darwin in the English empirical tradition and focusing on the uncanny similarities in the two writers' respective circumstances and preoccupations. Both Austen and Darwin were fascinated by sibling relations. Both were acute observers and analysts of courtship rituals. Both understood constant change as the way of the world, whether the microcosm under consideration is geological, biological, social, or literary. Both grasped the importance of scale in making observations. Both discerned the connection between minute, particular causes and vast, general effects. Employing the trenchant analytical talents associated with his subjects and informed by a wealth of historical and biographical detail and the best of recent work by historians of science, Graham has given us a new entree into Austen's and Darwin's writings.