00000nam a2200000 i 4500 UP-100084294495578395 Buklod 20230217132604.0 m |o d | ta 230217s2020 enk r b|001 0|eng d 9781845199562 (paperback) 22041147 DLC DMLF rda eng DMLUC N 66 L36 2020 Lamarque, Peter author. The uselessness of art essays in the philosophy of art and literature Peter Lamarque. Brighton Chicago Sussex Academic Press [2020] xxvii, 186 pages 23 cm text rdacontent unmediated rdamedia volume rdacarrier Critical voices Includes bibliographical references and index. Oscar Wilde's famous quip "All art is quite useless" might not be as outrageous or demonstrably false as is often supposed. No-one denies that much art begins life with practical aims in mind: religious, moral, political, propagandistic, or the aggrandising of its subjects. But those works that survive the test of time will move into contexts where for new audiences any initial instrumental values recede and the works come to be valued for their own sake. The book explores this idea and its ramifications. 0Must aesthetics in its pursuit of art and beauty inevitably be culture-bound? Or can it transcend cultural differences and speak meaningfully of universal values: timelessly human not merely historically relative? The case of literature or film puts further pressure on the idea of art valued for its own sake. Characters in works of literature and film or finely-honed emotions in poetry often give pleasure precisely because they resonate with our own lives and seem (in the great works) to say something profound about human existence. Is not this kind of insight why we value such works? Yet the conclusion is not quite as clear-cut as it might seem and the idea of valuing something for its own sake never quite goes away. Aesthetics. Art Philosophy. Literature Philosophy. Critical voices (Brighton, England) FI UPD DMLF N 66 L36 2020 Book