Artistic beauty and religious sublimity in literature: a Levinasian reproach of estheticism in light of Kant’s third Critique

Emmanuel Levinas’s doubts about the ethical value of artistic beauty have been widely acknowledged by the vast majority of Levinas’s commentators. However, though it is true that in “Reality and Its Shadow” Levinas persistently rebukes artistic beauty for its nonethicality, it is undeniable that he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for philosophy of religion
Main Author: Park, Wook Joo (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2021
In: International journal for philosophy of religion
Further subjects:B Ethical reality
B Artistic beauty
B Kantian esthetics
B Levinasian literary theory
B Philosophical criticism
B Spiritual sublimity
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Emmanuel Levinas’s doubts about the ethical value of artistic beauty have been widely acknowledged by the vast majority of Levinas’s commentators. However, though it is true that in “Reality and Its Shadow” Levinas persistently rebukes artistic beauty for its nonethicality, it is undeniable that he at least upholds the value of artistic criticism and modern literature. In this article I intend to relate Levinas’s exploration of the possibility of spiritual–ethical teaching in literature to Immanuel Kant’s reflections on the relation between the feeling of beauty, that of sublimity, and sensible feeling in his third Critique. This up-close comparative examination fosters understanding of Levinas’s religious and philosophical approach to the sublime elements in some literary works, especially those of Fyodor Dostoevsky.
ISSN:1572-8684
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11153-021-09807-w