Tolstoy''s ''What Is Art?''

Informationen zum Autor Diffey, Terry Zusammenfassung With its demand that works of art be judged according to the their morally didactic content, Tolstoy’s reviled aesthetics has seemed to exclude from the canon far too many works widely accepted as masterpieces, including Shakespeare and Beethoven. This book, first published in 1985, argues that these are not mere oversights on the part of Tolstoy: he knew full well the consequences of his line of reasoning. The author contends that, even if we disagree with and eventually reject much of what Tolstoy concludes, his account of the nature and purpose of art is nevertheless worth consideration. Diffey’s argument by no means accepts all of ‘What is Art?’ , but by suggesting that the work is best interpreted as a counterpoint to the amoral aestheticism prevalent in Russia at the time, he does much to restore it to a status deserving attention, particularly in today’s climate of extreme relativism. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface. 1. Introduction 2. Art as the Expression of Feeling 3. Works of Art: Evaluation and Classification 4. Counterfeit Art 5. Art, Science and Morality 6. Tolstoy’s Polemic: A Postscript

List of contents

Preface.  1. Introduction  2. Art as the Expression of Feeling  3. Works of Art: Evaluation and Classification  4. Counterfeit Art  5. Art, Science and Morality  6. Tolstoy's Polemic: A Postscript

Product details

• Authors: Terry Diffey, Diffey Terry
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 18.10.2016
• EAN: 9781138803411
• ISBN: 978-1-138-80341-1
• No. of pages: 176
• Series: Routledge Library Editions: Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Eastern Europe, PHILOSOPHY / Political, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY / Russian, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literary theory, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, LITERARY CRITICISM / Russian & Soviet, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Russian & Soviet