Beyond Aesthetics and Politics : Philosophical and Axiological Studies on the Avant-Garde, Pragmatism, and Postmodernism

Content: Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright Page
 Contents
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 PREFACE
 ONE Santayana and the Avant-garde: Visual Arts in the Context of Democracy, Norms, Liberty, and Social Progress
 1. Santayana and the Avant-garde
 2. Democratic, Although Not Liberal, Character of Modern Artistic Institutions and the Avant-garde \"\"Soviets\"\"
 3. Vital Liberty and the \"\"Penitent\"\" Arts
 4. Completion and Perfection vs. Deformation and Fragmentation (in Analytic Cubism)
 5. Critique of Primitivism and Caricature (in Cubism and Expressionism). 6. Criticism of Using Color as a Main Medium of Artistic Expression (Fauvism)7. Classic Harmony vs. Abstractionist Harmony
 8. Imagination and Naturalism vs. Dreaming and Fiction (Surrealism)
 9. Penetrating the World Rather Than Experiencing it: Problems with Expression (Expressionism)
 10. Santayana as a \"\"Self-indulgent Impressionist\"\"
 11. From the Standpoint of a Theory of Work of Art
 12. From the Standpoint of the Language of aWork of Art
 13. Conclusion: Politicization of the \"\"Foreground\"\" and the Idea of Social Progress. TWO Style as the Tool of Tyranny in Gombrowicz: An Avant-gardist as a Forerunner of Postmodernism1. \"\"I practice a private literature\"\": Mixing up Theory (Objectivity) with Practice (Subjectivity)
 2. The Avant-gardists Mixing up Reality with Unreality
 3. Reality and Unreality: Existentialism, Post-structuralism, and Postmodernism in Gombrowicz
 4. Disintegration, Deformation, and Decay as Somatic Symptoms of the Individual\'\'s Suffering from Unreality
 5. Pathology of Inter-human Bonds: Dialogue as a Duel, Conversation as a Confrontation. 6. Seduction as Abuse: Erotic Intrigue as an Execution of Power7. Virginity as Unawareness of the Relations of Power (\"\"Virginity\"\")
 8. Re-construction and the Re-combination of the World of Objects and Figures in Gombrowicz: BetweenDadaism and Postmodernism
 9. Auto-therapy or Becoming More Real by Means of Literary and Philosophical Creation
 10. The Political Formlessness and Impotence of the Poles. The Need of Communal Therapy
 11. Concluding Remarks: In What Way Did Gombrowicz forerun a Postmodern Approach? THREE Facial Images as a Way for the Articulation of Values in the Avant-garde\'\'s Aesthetics of Deformation. Another Prelude to Postmodernism1. From Form to Formlessness
 2. What is Aesthetics of Deformation?
 3. Deformation of Facial Images as a Search for New Values (Munch)
 4. Deformation of Facial Images as an Attempt at Re-formulation of the World of Values (Cubism)
 5. Deformation of Facial Images as an Attempt to Undermine the Established Values (Duchamp)
 6. Deformation of Facial Images as a Search for Freedom (Witkacy).