"Julia Prewitt Brown's Cosmopolitan Criticism is a significant
contribution to both Wilde criticism and our understanding of
nineteenth-century literature and philosophy. Her view that, for
Wilde, the sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are not separate
but interdependent is a fresh and welcome approach". -- Perry
Meisel, New York University
In the first book to explore the philosophical significance of
Oscar Wilde's life and work, Julia Prewitt Brown establishes
Wilde's importance to nineteenth-century literature and thought by
placing him in the continuum of continental aesthetic philosophy
from Kant and Schiller, through Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, to
Benjamin and Adorno.
Calling his philosophy of art his "most elusive legacy", Brown
attempts to define Wilde's conceptions of what art is and is not,
of what the experience of art means in the modem world, and of the
contradictory relations between the work of art and the sphere of
the ethical everyday. She traces the experimental character of
Wilde's thought from its resonance in his own life through its
development within the tradition of aesthetic philosophy,
ultimately focusing on his sense of the equivocal and diminishing
presence of art in the postindustrial world.
Convinced that the future of art, as well as that of
civilization as a whole, depended upon the development of what he
called" cosmopolitan criticism", Wilde consciously made himself at
home in the culture of other nations. This did not entail a
repudiation of his own roots, however, and was thus dialectical in
nature. Brown firmly places Wilde amidst the thinkers who gave rise
to his philosophy -- Ruskin, Pater, Arnold, Baudelaire -- and she
establishes hisrole as the link between Victorian ideas and the
more modem Benjamin and Adorno.
Cosmopolitan Criticism is an interdisciplinary study that should
appeal not only to Wilde enthusiasts but also to readers interested
in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature and aesthetics. In
this time of debate over ethics and the arts, Brown's provocative
analysis will add much to the dialogue.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
