Aesthetic Investigations (E-Journal, Dutch Association of Aesthetics)
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The paradox of fact from fiction; What fiction can and can’t tell us about the real world
Get PDFIn philosophical discussions of literature, there is a great deal of discussion about what’s been termed “the paradox of fiction”: how is it that we can be emotionally moved by characters that we know are not real? But an important related problem might be called the paradox of fact from fiction: how can an invented fictional world give us knowledge about the real one? In this essay I will look carefully at how fictional worlds could possibly tell us about real ones, and whether they, in fact, tends to do so. I then discuss ideas about how we might change how fiction is taught, in light of these conclusions
Is Literary Fiction about Truth or Meaning?
Get PDFIn this paper, I develop an alternative account of the novel’s cognitive value, based on the distinction Hannah Arendt made between truth (the result of the ‘need to know’) and meaning (the result of the ‘need to think’), claiming that the latter is better able to explain the novel’s cognitive value. To do this, I focus on a twofold movement I consider central to our experience of literary works, namely the fact that literary works always invite us to come to an interpretation of the work, but at the same time resist interpretation
Leonardo, After 500 Years
Get PDFWhy has Leonardo been made into a great scientist, to the discounting of his accomplishments in imagining a non-Biblical and totally catastrophic Deluge, his interest in pictograms, his dethronement of the human figure in favor of animals, plants, and flowing water? His project was to be an intellectual artist (which is not quite the same as a conceptual one). He both succeeded and failed. His contemporaries didn\u27t take him seriously enough; our age of science has taken him too seriously; and it remains to us to re-evaluate how and in what ways he broke free of the constraining norms of his day
Adapting Classical Restoration Concepts in Moving Image Restoration and the Role of Digital Techniques
No full textEthical and aesthetic guidelines in the field of moving image restoration have been adapted from classical restoration theory. Focusing on film but valid for moving images in general, the article provides definitions of relevant terms and discusses ethical criteria for restoration and their adaptability for moving images. Mainly the claim for authenticity in restoration opens a wide field of discussion, starting from the question about what is authentic about film. The perception of moving images and the components their aesthetic value is build upon have a great impact on restoration interventions. Digital restoration tools and digitization have gained importance during the last years. While providing a wide field of new solutions, their seemingly endless range of possibilities has lead to a revival of the discussion about ethical and aesthetic aspects in moving image restoration
Fiction as Universal Truth
Get PDFPerhaps, a work of fiction’s truth is the unfaltering manner in which its details guide the spectator, reader or listener to the coherent whole of the work, and never disappoint their experience, or at least never for long. This view requires us to hold back the inclination to think of truth as short for the correspondence of some representation to something beyond itself, which is the normal way to view truth in real life, in journalism and in science. A work that is true to itself may be said to generate a particularist type of universal knowledge, like Aristotle characterised poetry at the expense of history in his Poetics
Literature as Experiment: The Ontological Commitment of Fiction
Get PDFIn which sense can literature be conceived as an experiment? What type of experiment and experience does literature offer and what type or dimension of reality is at stake in literary investigations? What are the ontological stakes of literature in its construction of another world or a second nature? In this essay, I adress these questions in discussion with two authors who explicitly understand literature as experiment, namely Paul Ricoeur and Giorgio Agamben. To get a better sense of these ontological stakes of the experiment of literature, I will first turn to Ricoeur’s account . Subsequently, I will offer a critical discussion of how his concept of configuration, a central notion in his theory of narrative, actually limits the sense of the literary experiment and its ontological stakes. This discussion will address the relation between the concepts of potentiality, contingency, and event. Finally, I will turn to Agamben’s reading of Herman Melville’s famous story Bartleby, the Scrivener to offer a different sense of both the ontological stakes of the literary experiment and the relation between these three concepts.
 
Kill-Or-Cure Remedy Challenge: Approaches to Authenticity in the Interpretation and Preservation of Paintings by Edvard Munch at the Munch Museum
No full textDespite the controversies surrounding the artistic concept known to Edvard Munch conservators as the `kill-or-cure\u27 remedy (leaving paintings outdoors to become weathered), this paper argues that this practice is an integral part of his artistic identity and must therefore be considered in conservation strategies and treatment choices. Starting with a brief overview of Munch\u27s experimental painting techniques and use of materials, this paper introduces several challenges confronting conservators tasked with conserving Munch\u27s works. To date, conservators\u27 treatment of Munch\u27s `kill-or-cure\u27 remedy as an artistic concept has dominated and shaped the way conservators mediate and preserve his art. This paper shows how changes in conservation philosophies, as well as aesthetic and art historical theories, influence conservation treatments; ultimately affects the public\u27s perception and appreciation of Munch\u27s art. This paper argues that surface irregularities caused by Munch\u27s `kill-or-cure\u27 remedy are not only a central theme in Munch\u27s work, but are especially relevant as marks of authenticity
Conceptual Painting – an artist’s investigation…
Get PDFConceptual painting is not a contradiction in terms. You cannot construct a work without doing something