The Aesthetics of Ruins

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-90-420-1672-9
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 159, 554 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1007 g

Reihe: Value Inquiry Book Series

This book constructs a theory of ruins that celebrates their vitality and unity in aesthetic experience. Its argument draws upon over 100 illustrations prepared in 40 countries. Ruins flourish as matter, form, function, incongruity, site, and symbol. Ruin underlies cultural values in cinema, literature and philosophy. Finally, ruin guides meditations upon our mortality and endangered world.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Kunsttheorie, Kunstphilosophie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Museumskunde, Materielle Kultur, Erinnerungskultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Foreword by Claire Richter Sherman
Preface
Acknowledgments
ONE The Ruin as Matter
TWO The Ruin as Form
THREE The Ruin as Function
FOUR The Ruin as Incongruity
FIVE The Ruin as Site
SIX The Ruin as Symbol
SEVEN The Ruin as Aesthetic Experience
EIGHT Visit to a Ruin: St. Andrews
NINE Building with Ruin
TEN Nature as Ruin
ELEVEN Sculpture and Other Visual Arts as Ruin
TWELVE Cinema and Television as Ruin
THIRTEEN Literature as Ruin
FOURTEEN Philosophy as Ruin
FIFTEEN The Terminology of Ruin
SIXTEEN Theories of Ruin
SEVENTEEN The Ruining Eye – and Other Senses
EIGHTEEN Fragments of a Chapter on Ruin
NINETEEN Meditations on Humanity, Self, and the World as Ruins
Works Cited
Chronology of Ruin
Appendix Bibliographical Essay on the Literature and Imagery of Ruin
About the Author
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Ginsberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1937. From 1952 to 1960, he studied at the University of Chicago, chiefly in aesthetics (B.A., M.A.). Assisted by Fulbright grants, he lived in Paris from 1960 to 1963, continuing his explorations in aesthetics at the Sorbonne. He did additional studies in Sweden, the Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague, and the University of Vienna. He returned to America to complete a Ph.D. in philosophy in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania (1966). Ginsberg has engaged in study missions to Italy (classics), Israel (peace studies), and China (Confucianism). In the United States, he pursued post-doctoral studies at The Johns Hopkins University (film), University of California at Irvine (political philosophy), Brandeis University (classics), the Folger Institute in Washington (history of philosophy), and Georgetown University (classics). Research grants have taken him to Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Hungary, and Germany. Ginsberg taught in France and Turkey in the 1960s. In the United States, he served as adjunct professor at Drexel University, Philadelphia, and Temple University, Harrisburg. Appointed as the first faculty member at The Pennsylvania State University’s Delaware County Campus in 1967, when it opened its doors in the Philadelphia suburbs, he taught for Penn State for thirty-five years. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Comparative Literature. During a motor tour of Scotland in 1967, Ginsberg first discovered the beauties of ruins. Subsequently, he has traveled extensively to study and photograph ruins and lecture on them (Pl. 94). To gain experience in the field, he participated in archaeological study tours in Egypt, Tunisia, Italy, Yugoslavia, Mexico, and Guatemala. In developing a career as photographer-philosopher, he has exhibited his visual works in Paris, Hong Kong, Montréal, Philadelphia, and Washington. Among Ginsberg’s publications are a handbook for students, Welcome to Philosophy! (1977), and a monograph on sculpture, Gustav Vigeland: A Case Study in Art and Culture (1984). He edited Criticism and Theory in the Arts (1963), A Casebook on the Declaration of Independence (1967), The Critique of War: Contemporary Philosophical Explorations (1969), and The Philosopher as Writer: The Eighteenth Century (1987). Ginsberg edits the book series, New Studies in Aesthetics. Previously, he served as editor of the Social Philosophy Research Institute Book Series (SPRIBS), the Jones and Bartlett Philosophy Series, The Journal of Value Inquiry, and the Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS). As an editor, he has supervised the publication of two hundred volumes. In 1962, Robert Ginsberg and Ellen Sutor wed in Paris. Since 1972, the Ginsbergs have made their home in Takoma Park, Maryland, an historic suburb of Washington, where they direct the International Center for the Arts, Humanities, and Value Inquiry.