Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T19:44:11.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Heidegger's Poetic Saying Account for More (or Less) Than Great Artworks?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2017

OLIVIER MATHIEU
OLIVIER MATHIEU*
Affiliation:
COLLÈGE DE [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In this paper I mobilize the Heideggerian concept of poetic saying [Dichtung] to describe features that pertain to the accomplishment of an artwork in the institutional setting of an artworld. Following Binkley and Davies, I first describe performances generative of artworks as ‘piece-specification’. I argue that a condition of ‘artistic creativity’ bears upon piece-specification that is insufficiently accounted for by these authors and that Heidegger's concept of poetic saying can help flesh it out. To that end, I show that it is at least coherent with some of Heidegger's phenomenological insights to argue that (1) poetic sayings are not necessarily tied to the advent of ‘great artworks’ and that (2) poetic sayings thus lend themselves to an analysis that views them as the intentional accomplishment of a meaning-event [Sinnereignis]. I then use the intentional structure of poetic sayings to describe how one can intend to achieve piece-specification in a creative yet recognizable manner.

Keywords

Heideggerartistic creativityDavid DaviesDichtungaestheticsphilosophy of artpiece-specification
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 51 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernasconi, Robert. (1985) The Question of Language in Heidegger's History of Being. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binkley, Timothy. (1976) ‘Deciding About Art’. In Aagaard-Mogensen, Lars (ed.), Culture and Art: An Anthology (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press), 90–109.Google Scholar
Binkley, Timothy. (1977) ‘Piece: Contra Aesthetics’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 35, 265–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowell, Stephen. (2008) ‘Measure-Taking: Meaning and Normativity in Heidegger's Philosophy’. Continental Philosophy Review, 41, 261–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowell, Stephen. (2011) ‘Phenomenology and Aesthetics; or, Why Art Matters’. In Parry, Joseph D. (ed.), Art and Phenomenology (London: Routledge), 31–53.Google Scholar
Davies, David. (2004) Art as Performance. Malden, MA: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. (1978) La vérité en peinture. Paris: Champs Flammarion.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. (1992) Acts of Literature. Edited by Derek Attridge. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard. (1987) Seuils. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Harries, Karsten. (2009) Art Matters: A Critical Commentary on Heidegger's ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’. Amsterdam: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (1977) Holzwege. Vol. 5 of Gesamtausgabe. Frankfurt/Main: Klostermann.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (1981) Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung. Vol. 4 of Gesamtausgabe. Frankfurt/Main: Klostermann.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (1985) Unterwegs zur Sprache. Vol. 12 of Gesamtausgabe. Frankfurt/Main: Klostermann.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (2002) Off the Beaten Track. Edited and translated by Young, J. and Haynes, K.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (2012), Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event). Translated by R. Rojcewicz and D. Vallega-Neu. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Herrmann, F.-W. v. (1994) Heideggers Philosophie der Kunst. Frankfurt/Main: Klostermann.Google Scholar
Pöggeler, Otto. (1994a) ‘Heidegger on Art’. In Harries, K. and Jamme, C. (eds.), Martin Heidegger: Politics, Art, and Technology (New York: Holmes & Meier ), 107–10.Google Scholar
Pöggeler, Otto. (1994b) Der Denkweg Martin Heideggers. 4th ed. Stuttgart: Neske.Google Scholar
Seubold, Günter. (1996) Kunst als Enteignis. Bonn: Bouvier.Google Scholar
Tengelyi, László. (2005) ‘Reflections on the Program‘ of the Internationale Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für phänomenologische Forschung, October 5–8, Bergische Universität Wuppertal.Google Scholar
Thomson, Iain. (2011) Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Iain. (2015) ‘Heidegger's Aesthetics’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed October 6, 2016. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger-aesthetics/.Google Scholar
Torsen, Ingvild. (2014) ‘The Origin of the Work of Art and Its Legacy’. In Kelly, M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. 2d ed. (Oxford: Oxford Press). Accessed online October 6, 2016. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199747108.001.0001/acref-9780199747108-e-361?rskey=pBsHhy&result=360#acref-9780199747108-e-361-eSub-161.Google Scholar
Young, Julian. (2001) Heidegger's Philosophy of Art. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar