The Aesthetics of Clarity and Confusion : Literature and Engagement since Nietzsche and the Naturalists.
Baker, Geoffrey.
2016
PN851-884
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Title The Aesthetics of Clarity and Confusion : Literature and Engagement since Nietzsche and the Naturalists.
Author Baker, Geoffrey.
ISBN 9783319421711
3319421719
9783319421704
3319421700
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42171-1.
Imprint Cham : Springer International Publishing, 2016.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (286 pages)
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1007/978-3-319-42171-1. doi
Call Number PN851-884
Dewey Decimal Classification 809
Summary What should literature with political aims look like? This book traces two rival responses to this question, one prizing clarity and the other confusion, which have dominated political aesthetics since the late nineteenth century. Revisiting recurrences of the avant-garde experimentalism versus critical realism debates from the twentieth century, Geoffrey A. Baker highlights the often violent reductions at work in earlier debates. Instead of prizing one approach over the other, as many participants in those debates have done, Baker instead focuses instead on the manner in which the debate itself between these approaches continues to prove productive and enabling for politically engaged writers. This book thus offers a way beyond the simplistic polarity of realism vs. anti-realism in a study that is focused on influential strands of thought in England, France, and Germany and that covers well-known authors such as Zola, Nietzsche, Arnold, Mann, Brecht, Sartre, Adorno, Lukács, Beauvoir, Morrison, and Coetzee.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Series Palgrave studies in modern European literature.
Available in Other Form Aesthetics of Clarity and Confusion : Literature and Engagement since Nietzsche and the Naturalists.
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Preface; Acknowledgments; Contents; Chapter 1: Introduction: Literary Activism, Clarity and€Confusion; Sartre and€the€Aesthetic of€Clarity; Adorno and€the€Aesthetic of€Confusion; The Use(lessness) of€Literature and€Language; Part I: Naturalists and Nietzscheans: Codifying Clarity and Confusion; Chapter 2: "For Love of€Clarity": Émile Zola, Practice, and€the€Political Potential of€Realistic Literature; "Tout voir, tout savoir": Seeing as€Knowing; Content to€Know; The Practical Uses of€Clarity; Chapter 3: Grounds for€Confusion: Nietzsche, Theory, and€the€Political Potential of€Anti-Realism.

"Das Problem der Wissenschaft": Against Knowing"Clarity Bordering on Stupidity": The Form of Confusion; The Practical Uses of Confusion; Part II: Ambiguities of Activism: Complicating Clarity and Confusion; Chapter 4: Between Theory and Practice: Matthew Arnold, Thomas Mann, Julien Benda, and the Purpose of the Intellectual; "Apostle[s] of Political Detachment"?; Criticism Between Clarity and Confusion; Criticism as Activism; Between Theory and Practice, Still; Chapter 5: "Different Kinds of Clarity": Science, Sense, and Utilitarian Realism in Bertolt Brecht; Naturalist Brecht?

The Sense of€Brecht"The Truth Is Concrete": Brecht's Materialism; "That Brechtian Usefulness"; Chapter 6: Pressing Engagement: Jean-Paul Sartre and€the€Aesthetic Problem of€the€Political; Communication, Clarity, and€Confusion; Forms of€Engagement: Confusing Sartre; To Change the€Subject: Narcissistic Activism; Chapter 7: An Other Engagement: Simone de Beauvoir and€the€Ethical Problem of€the€Political; The Problem of€Engagement; The Aesthetics and€Ethics of€Engagement in€The Mandarins; Chapter 8: Conclusion: Contemporary Engagements with€Clarity and€Confusion.

Peter Handke: From€the€Ivory TowerToni Morrison: "How to€See Without Pictures"; J.M.€Coetzee: "Surprising Involvement"; Works Cited; Index.

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