The sovereignty of art
Subtitle: aesthetic negativity in Adorno and Derrida
By: Christoph Menke ; translated by Neil Solomon.
Series: Studies in contemporary German social thought
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
Subjects: Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969; Derrida, Jacques -- Aesthetics; Negativity (Philosophy) -- History -- 20th century; Aesthetics, Modern -- 20th century; Deconstruction
Description: In this book, Christoph Menke attempts to explain art's sovereign power over reason without falling into an error common to Adorno's negative dialectics and Derrida's deconstruction. The error, which appeared even earlier in romanticism, is to conceive of the sovereignty of art as a reflection of the superiority of its knowledge; but art entails no knowledge, and its negativity toward reason cannot be articulated as an insight into the nature of reason.

Rather, art is the medium of an experience that confronts reason from the outside with an insurmountable, never-ending crisis. Art is sovereign not despite, but because of, its autonomy. Its power to subvert reason depends on its separateness from reason. Menke brings to his arguments a firm grounding in both philosophy and literary studies, as well as familiarity with German, French, and American sources.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-297) and index.