Studies in 'The Ironic End of Art'

“艺术的讽刺终结”研究

• 批准号: AH/E505511/1
• 负责人: Josh Cohen
• 金额: $ 2.59万
• 依托单位: Goldsmiths University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE505511%2F1
• 关键词: Studies; Ironic; End; Art

Much art and literature of the present day provokes charges of nihilism and emptiness. Indeed, a number of contemporary art historians and critics have proclaimed 'the end of art'. My project, a series of three linked articles, will explore the contemporary conditions of aesthetic theory and literary practice in the light of this claim.Its key focus is the pervasive practice of irony in contemporary art. Suspicion of aesthetic irony has its roots in Hegel, who charged it with undermining universal meanings and values. Hegel's antagonist Schlegel, in contrast, celebrated irony's capacity to dissolve given perceptions of the world.My project situates contemporary theories and practices of art in the context of this controversy, which continues to play itself out in today's debates on the function of the aesthetic. I intend to explore how and why certain forms of contemporary art and literature refuse the appeal to common understanding, subjecting their audience to an experience of 'infinite' irony. Drawing on Continental philosophy and psychoanalysis, I will read this mode of irony as at once destructive and creative, a means of both annihilating and generating meanings.In my studies of aesthetic theory and of two contemporary American writers, Lydia Davis and Donald Barthelme, I will argue that, in contrast to the 'knowing' irony described by theorists of postmodernism such as Linda Hutcheon, post­ Schlegelian irony involves a resolute unknowingness, what Paul de Man calls 'a language of stupidity...error...and madness.' This mode of irony, I suggest, serves as kind of perpetual refusal of the Hegel will to universal comprehension, a means of maintaining the radical openness and completeness of any and every artwork.

当今的许多艺术和文学作品都被指责为虚无主义和空虚。事实上，许多当代艺术史学家和评论家都宣称“艺术的终结”。我的项目是一系列三篇相互关联的文章，将根据这一主张探讨美学理论和文学实践的当代状况。它的重点是当代艺术中普遍存在的反讽实践。对美学反讽的怀疑源于黑格尔，他指责反讽破坏了普遍的意义和价值。相反，黑格尔的对手施莱格尔则推崇反讽消解既定世界观念的能力。我的项目将当代艺术理论和实践置于这一争议的背景下，这一争议在今天关于美学功能的辩论中继续发挥作用。我打算探讨当代艺术和文学的某些形式如何以及为什么拒绝对共同理解的呼吁，使他们的观众体验到“无限”的讽刺。借鉴欧陆哲学和精神分析，我将把这种反讽模式解读为既是破坏性的又是创造性的，是一种既毁灭又产生意义的手段。在我对美学理论和两位当代美国作家莉迪亚·戴维斯（Lydia Davis）和唐纳德·巴塞尔姆（Donald Barthelme）的研究中，我认为，与琳达·哈钦（Linda Hutcheon）等后现代主义理论家所描述的“明知”反讽相反，后施莱格尔反讽涉及一种坚决的不可知，保罗·德曼（Paul de Man）称之为“愚蠢的语言……错误……”和疯狂。我认为，这种反讽的模式，是黑格尔意志对普遍理解的一种永恒的拒绝，是一种保持任何艺术作品的根本开放性和完整性的手段。