This article analyzes the socio-cultural theories of Adorno, Benjamin, and Brecht through the lens of the theatre, most especially as it pertains to the work of actors. It explores the forces of capitalism that determine how art is produced, distributed, and consumed. Following Adorno’s reading of Marx, actors are here posited as commodities whose labor is separated from the product they create for public consumption. This commodification raises various questions: How does a market economy shape the production and consumption of (...) art? What is technology’s function in the commodification of art? What is art’s sociopolitical role and how does it apply to theatre? To address these questions I juxtapose the cultural theory of Adorno and Benjamin with Brecht’s epic theatre. This comparison exposes the ritualistic potential of the theatre to bring an audience together as a community through sharing a socially enriching event. (shrink)

Philosophers within the discipline of the history of philosophy have long since demonstrated a preoccupation with the history of aesthetic ideas. However, not all aesthetic concepts in 19th- and 20th-century thought have been given an adequate analysis. One concept which, while attracting interest in literary theory debates, has rarely been mentioned in history of philosophy debates, is that of aura . The reason for the marginal role of aura in present debates is due no doubt to the difficult and sometimes (...) utterly obscure nature of Adorno's texts, which often veils their underlying philosophical content. Aura concept is important because it represents a still rather neglected strand of Adorno's Aesthetische Theorie , which has often been regarded as solely an avocation of the aesthetics of the ‘New’. This article offers an original and in-depth analysis of this key concept showing how significant it is to Adorno's overall project. Key Words: Theodor Adorno • aesthetics • aura • Walter Benjamin • distance • gaze • proximity • receptivity. (shrink)

Essays explore the significance of Julia Kristeva’s concept of intimate revolt for social and political philosophy. Over the last twenty years, French philosopher, psychoanalyst, and novelist Julia Kristeva has explored how global crises threaten people’s ability to revolt. In a context of widespread war, deepening poverty, environmental catastrophes, and rising fundamentalisms, she argues that a revival of inner psychic experience is necessary and empowering. “Intimate revolt” has become a central concept in Kristeva’s critical repertoire, framing and permeating her understanding of (...) power, meaning, and identity. New Forms of Revolt brings together ten essays on this aspect of Kristeva’s work, addressing contemporary social and political issues like immigration and cross-cultural encounters, colonial and postcolonial imaginations, racism and artistic representation, healthcare and social justice, the spectacle of global capitalism, and new media. Sarah K. Hansen is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Northridge. Rebecca Tuvel is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes College. (shrink)

Robert Pippin reviews Slavoj Žižek’s Less than Nothing, a serious attempt to re-actualize Hegel in the light of Lacanian metapsychology. But does Žižek’s attempt to think Hegel with Lacan produce, as Žižek hopes, a political figuration adequate to the present? Or does it land us rather in the Hegelian zoo, along with such well-known specimens as the Beautiful Soul, the Unhappy Consciousness, and The Knight of Virtue?

Jackson Petsche explores the positive potential, for the present moment, of “l’art pour l’art,” as mobilized by the Decadent writers of the fin de siècle. Petsche’s essay is the winner of the 2010 Michael Sprinker Graduate Writing Competition, which recognizes an essay or dissertation chapter that engages with Marxist theory, scholarship, pedagogy, or activism.

This study is a philosophical work on Martin Heidegger's thinking. Its primary purpose is to study Heideggerian concepts. Secondly, it brings into focus two other thinkers who play with Heidegger 's thought, and thirdly, it applies Heideggerian thinking to truth and art. The study is compilation of eight articles, which are divided under three titles: I Heidegger and the Truth. II Heidegger and Truth in the Horizon of Nietzsche and Foucault, III Art in the Heideggerian Light. The main themes in (...) this study are truth and art. The first part of the study is comprised of research work on Heid egger's theory and the concept of truth, which he present in his main work Sein und Zeit. Another important theme is the Heideggerian concept of world, which is the foundation of Heidegger's Alethetical truth. Heidegger uses the concept in the phrase "being in the world." This "being in the world" is a situation in which Dasein always exists, and Heidegger claims that there is no truth without Dasein. Art, especially the work of art and poetry, are connected with the truth in Heidegger's philosophy. Art has played a central role throughout the entire tradition of western philosophy, and the same is true in Heidegger's philosophy. But Heidegger does not follow the traditional aesthetic theory of art. He formulates the question of the essence of art as an ontological question. Art is the place where the truth occurs. This kind of understanding of truth and art needs to overcome metaphysics. Heidegger regards Friedrich Nietzsche as the last representative of metaphysics, which is why Nietzsche's philosophy as nihilism must be overcome. I deal with these questions in the second part of my study. In the third part of the study I examine what is left of the truth and art in the postmodern era. In his later writings, Heidegger leaves out Dasein and changes his style of writing. The concept of the world is still essential, but it now lives its own life along with earth, gods and mortals. The main aim of this study is to bring Heidegger's theory of the truth into focus and into the Finnish philosophical discourse. Secondly, it shows what happens to the work of art in the postmodern era. (shrink)