Hegel on the Modern Arts Modern European Philosophy Series

Debates over the 'end of art' have tended to obscure Hegel's work on the arts themselves. Benjamin Rutter opens this study with a defence of art's indispensability to Hegel's conception of modernity; he then seeks to reorient discussion toward the distinctive values of painting, poetry, and the novel. Working carefully through Hegel's four lecture series on aesthetics, he identifies the expressive possibilities particular to each medium. Thus, Dutch genre scenes animate the everyday with an appearance of vitality; metaphor frees language from prose; and Goethe's lyrics revive the banal routines of love with imagination and wit. Rutter's important study reconstructs Hegel's view not only of modern art but of modern life and will appeal to philosophers, literary theorists, and art historians alike.

Introduction; 1. The problem of a modern art; 2. Painting life; 3. The values of virtuosity; 4. The lyric; 5. Modern literature; Bibliography.

Benjamin Rutter teaches English at Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, New York. His research interests include German Idealism, contemporary analytic aesthetics, and the philosophy of criticism. This is his first book.