Art as the Absolute

Reviews / Votes

German idealism, in the boldness of its textual and systematic design, in the innovative persistence of its investigations, and in its profound, multinational repercussions, has, over the past four decades, served contemporary critical theory as a primary 'scene of interpretation.' The critical community is in Paul Gordon's considerable debt for the fresh and conclusive update delivered by Art as the Absolute on the constellation of concepts and constructs crystallizing around the Romantic figure of the artist, and on the liberties, privileges, and restrictions attending this complex and ambiguous figure. The theoretical acumen and erudition that Gordon had to derive in order to synthesize this study are prodigious; yet in its directness of approach and presentation, this current status-report is accessible to advanced scholars and motivated undergraduates alike. Gordon's fresh readings of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Schopenhauer, among others, will reside at the theoretical cutting-edge for some time to come. * Henry Sussman, Visiting Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Yale University, USA, and author of Playful Intelligence and The Aesthetic Contract *