Deconstruction and the Work of Art

Visual Arts and Their Critique in Contemporary French Thought

Martta Heikkilä

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978780385
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Art Theory & Criticism

The contemporary idea of the "work of art" is paradoxically both widely used and often unexamined. Therefore, we must re-evaluate the concept before we can understand what the deconstruction of aesthetics means for thinkers like Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. By examining their analyses of works of visual art and contextualizing their thinking on the matter, Martta Heikkilä asserts that the implications of the "work of art," "art," and "the aesthetic" apply not only to philosophical questions but also to a broader area. Instead of the totality represented by the historical concept of Art, poststructuralist thinkers introduce the idea of the radical multiplicity of art and its works. From this notion arises the fundamental issue in Derrida and the poststructuralist tradition: how can we speak philosophically of art, which always exists as singular instances, as works? In Deconstruction and the Work of Art: Visual Arts and Their Critique in Contemporary French Thought, Heikkilä shows that the deconstructionist notions of art are still influential in the discourses of contemporary art, in which artworks proliferate and the concept of "work" is open-ended and expanding. This book offers an introduction to the deconstructionist theory of art and brings new perspectives to the complex, undecidable relation between philosophy and art.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The Dissemination of Art
• Chapter 1: The Muteness and Blindness of Images: Deconstruction and the Work of Art
• Chapter 2: Beyond Presence: Form and Figure
• Chapter 3: The Frames of the Work of Art
• Chapter 4: The Trait and Difference: Art between Form and Gesture
• Chapter 5: Words and Art: Exemplarity of the Work
• Chapter 6: Mimesis as Difference
• Chapter 7: The Deconstruction of the Image
• Conclusion: The Complicated Liaison of Art and Philosophy
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author