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The Aesthete's Aesthetics
Author(s) -
Jansen F. J. Billeskov
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1997.tb00038.x
Subject(s) - aestheticism , comedy , opera , servant , art , literature , mozart , tragedy (event) , philosophy , aesthetics , character (mathematics) , geometry , mathematics , computer science , programming language
Within Either/Or (1843), the great work that marked Søren Kierkegaard's breakthrough, the first part contains A's papers, a collection of articles in which A demonstrates his “aesthetic,” i.e., a life‐enjoying, amoral attitude to human existence. In the second part, B is A's friend and opposite: civil servant, husband, man of duty. In letters he attempts to turn the Aesthete into an Ethicist. In a penetrating analysis of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni , Sophocles’tragedy Antigone , and Scribe's comedy The First Love , A passes interesting dramaturgical judgments, propounds general aesthetic norms, and gives samples to show that, with virtuoso linguistic art, he can create both pictures in motion and a musical procession. A is a fictional figure, but his professional assessments belong to the author, Kierkegaard, who thus proves his penetrating understanding of the interrelations of different art forms.