Humanism, Anti-Authoritarianism, and Literary Aesthetics: Pragmatist Stories of Progress

By Ulf Schulenberg

Presenting pragmatist humanism as a form of anti-authoritarianism, this book sheds light on the contemporary significance of pragmatist aesthetics and the revival of humanism.

This interdisciplinary study shows that a mediation between pragmatist aesthetics - which emphasizes the significance of creating, making, and inventing - and Marxist materialist aesthetics - which values form - promises interesting results and that the former can learn from the latter.

In doing so, Ulf Schulenberg discusses 3 layers of the multi-layered phenomenon that is the revival of humanism: He first explains the potential of a pragmatist humanism, clarifying the contemporary significance of humanism. He then argues that pragmatist humanism is a form of anti-authoritarianism. Finally, he shows the possibility of bringing together the resurgence of humanism and a renewed interest in the work of aesthetic form by arguing that pragmatist aesthetics needs a more complex conception of form.

Establishing a transatlantic theoretical dialogue, Humanism, Anti-Authoritarianism, and Literary Aesthetics brings together literary and aesthetic theory, philosophy, and intellectual history. It discusses a broad range of authors - from Emerson, Whitman, James, Nietzsche, Proust, and Dewey to Wittgenstein, Luk cs, Adorno, Jameson, Latour, and Rorty - to illuminate how humanism, pragmatism, and anti-authoritarianism are interlinked.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BQB3BLVD
• ISBN13: 9798765102435
• Release Date: September 2023
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"