The Whispers of the Muses : Artworks as Time Travelers / Vjeran Katunarić

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Katunarić, Vjeran, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art Epochs.

Artworks.

History of Art.

Kulturepochen.

Kunstgeschichte.

Musen.

Muses.

Local Subjects:

Art Epochs.

Artworks.

History of Art.

Kulturepochen.

Kunstgeschichte.

Musen.

Muses.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Hannover ibidem 2022

Biography/History:

Vjeran Katunarić was born in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Zagreb. From 1985 to 2010, he was professor at the University of Zagreb, from 2010 to 2019 at the University of Zadar. . He published over 150 works, including 20 books. His titles published in English include The Quest for a Liberal-Socialist Democracy and Development: Against the Behemoth (2018) and Dancing and Calculating: Culturally sustainable development and globalization in light of two paradigms of socio-cultural development (2014).. He was awarded the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the figure of Marko Marulić for merits in culture. He is also the winner of the annual award for the science of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, and the honor "Rudi Supek" for extraordinary significant achievements, successes, and merits for the development of sociology. In 2017, he obtained the highest recognition in science in Croatia by receiving the State Award (granted by the Croatian Parliament) for his lifetime achievement in the social sciences.

Vjeran Katunarić was born in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Zagreb. From 1985 to 2010, he was professor at the University of Zagreb, from 2010 to 2019 at the University of Zadar. He published over 150 works, including 20 books. His titles published in English include The Quest for a Liberal-Socialist Democracy and Development: Against the Behemoth (2018) and Dancing and Calculating: Culturally sustainable development and globalization in light of two paradigms of socio-cultural development (2014). He was awarded the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the figure of Marko Marulić for merits in culture. He is also the winner of the annual award for the science of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, and the honor "Rudi Supek" for extraordinary significant achievements, successes, and merits for the development of sociology. In 2017, he obtained the highest recognition in science in Croatia by receiving the State Award (granted by the Croatian Parliament) for his lifetime achievement in the social sciences.

Summary:

Although there is widespread belief that some artists attract the attention of muses more than others, this topic has, so far, not been taken up seriously in art history or sociology of culture. In his fascinating book, Vjeran Katunarić starts out by presenting many artworks, from literature and visual arts to performing arts and architecture, as examples that demonstrate the transcendental potential of art. The key concept explaining this capability concerns the crossing of three time frames, i.e. past, present, and future in the historical present. An inspirational source for such an approach is to be found in the aesthetic sociology and philosophy of Georg Simmel and in the philosophical hermeneutics of history by Walter Benjamin. The selected artworks and periods, respectively, span from early Renaissance and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to postmodernity and neoliberalism – with a glimpse to a possible future as the opening of the cosmic era of humanity that is anticipated in early vanguard and some contemporary paintings.

Contents:

Intro

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 Desensitized genius: The actuality of Dialectic of Enlightenment

Introduction: Monsters, science, and art

Excursus: The questionable role of God

The archaic challenge of the aesthetic Enlightenment: The Sirens' song

Opposing the Romantic worldview: The military Enlightenment

The sensuous against the unregardful Enlightenment

The hermeneutics of self-restraint

or, What the Sirens actually said to Odysseus

The peak of the antipoetic world: Nazism

Conclusion: Genial stupidity and the quest for an aesthetic Enlightenment

References

Webography

Chapter 2 A counter-stream toward a future: The whispering Muses

Singers and whisperers

Ten propositions

Chapter 3 Past and present, from which the future follows: On artistic cognition

Introduction: Arrival at the unknown

The social mechanism

The angel of history

Just an artist?

Art as a signifier of the lifeworld-rebirth

The monotheistic coup and linear time-the triumph of death?

Going backwards or forward toward cosmic peace?

Chapter 4 The European Renaissance and the anticipation of capitalism

The birth of a new alliance

Last Supper with comrades

Who will play Jesus?

Jesus' performance of the New Testament script

Farewell to idealism?

Chapter 5 Baroque and Enlightenment: The architecture of the Prince

An introduction to Versailles

The ground floor next to emptiness-relief of the center of the world

The magnificent façade for the primal urge

Exclusive gardens

Narcissistic mirrors

Art and architecture and celebration of the highest power: A valid distinction?

Time at an eternal standstill

Versailles versus the triple helix

Webography.

Chapter 6 Romanticism: Anticipating revolution and nationalism

Introduction: The effervescence of social emotions

The "elective affinity"

The choice of partners and morbid curiosity

Being here and being there at once: A mission possible

Freedom for the people led by the "eternal woman"

The Sphinx who sang about the future-Verdi's Nabucco

Verdi and the Risorgimento

In the beginning was national thought-Va, Pensiero

Singing about concordant rather than discordant nations

Chapter 7 Realism and dystopia: The tour de force of capitalism

Introduction: Fictive justice and real injustice

The enchanted misanthrope in A Christmas Carol

"There is no job for you": Zola's Germinal

The tour de force of capitalism: London's Iron Heel

Chapter 8 Modernism: Anticipating liberalism, fascism, and socialism

Introduction: Temporal utopias

The enthusiasm that swallows contradictions: Whitman's Leaves of Grass

All times gathered in a common anthem to the world

The future (as) machine: Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism

An agitating insomnia: D'Annunzio's Notturno

Mephistopheles in Moscow: Bulgakov's Master and Margarita

A destitute Jesus entering Cosmopolis: Krleža's "Croatian Rhapsody"

Chapter 9 The vanguard introducing a radical change invisual communication

Introduction: Artistic visions playing with the law of gravitation

Extending the scope of living matter: Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

African masks

"Sacred prostitution"

Preceding Miró: The blue void and Picasso's "sixth woman"

The blue as the void and being: Miró's reanimations of objects

Chapter 10 Postmodernism: Anticipating total commodification, the feminist continuity, and nostalgia.

Introduction: The catastrophe of unilinear development and the cultural turn

Postmodernism as the culture of late capitalism-how late?

On postmodernism in the capitalist economy

Barbara Kruger: I am not what I wanted to be

Charles Willard Moore: Utopia interpolated in times and landscapes of place

Marvel Comics-the return of monsters

Chapter 11 Cinema Urania and Terra est Stella Nobilis: Anticipating cosmic peace and joy

A couple of preliminary remarks

The symbolic beginning of the new era

The coming concert from Heaven and Earth celebrating the new life

Urania and Gaia: Cosmic teacher and pupil

From the Cenozoic to the Cosmozoic Era: The grand opening celebration

An epilogue

Other Format:

Print version: Katunarić, Vjeran The Whispers of the Muses

ISBN:

9783838276977

Publisher Number:

9783838276977