DIALECTIC OF PRESENCE AND INTERPRETATION IN EVERYDAY AESTHETICS: APPLYING HEIDEGGER AND GUMBRECHT TO A WALK IN ONE’S NEIGHBOURHOOD

• Authors: Leddy Thomas
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Gumbrecht’s Heidegger-inspired book, Production of Presence, provides valuable tools for resolving issues in everyday aesthetics. Gumbrecht distinguishes between “presence cultures” and “interpretation cultures.” (Gumbrecht 2004) We live in an interpretation culture, and yet even in our culture there are presence effects. Gumbrecht understands aesthetic experience in terms of the idea of presence. His paradigms are great works of art and great athletic events, all of which take us away from the everyday. I argue that his theory can be adapted, ironically, to everyday aesthetics, in particular to the experience of taking a walk. Much of what we experience aesthetically while taking a walk is experienced in the mode of silence. But, as Gumbrecht observes, there is an oscillation between presence effects and interpretation effects in aesthetic experience. I see that oscillation as something more like dialectic. I also bring Plato’s theory of beauty and Danto’s theory of the art world into this discussion.

Keywords

EN

EVERYDAY AESTHETICS; PRESENCE; GUMBRECHT; HEIDEGGER

• Publisher: Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia ad Institute of Aesthetics and Art Culture
• Journal: ESPES
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 56 - 71

Contributors

author

Leddy Thomas

• San José State University, One Washington Square, San José, CA 95192, USA

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5866428