Overview

This study proposes an epistemological model on the basis of a streamlined and heavily modified German Idealism. With an analytical focus on the French Second Empire, the underlying research question is rather straightforward: how is knowledge created in material modernity? Using my epistemological model as a methodology for cultural criticism, a second research question emerges: how does the creation of knowledge in material modernity affect human existence? In this context, my argument revolves around the work of Charles Baudelaire, who, as the first poet of modernity, serves as a cultural-critical gateway. I conclude that the specific conditions of material modernity eventually produce an epistemological darkness ultimately leading to fatalism in the guise of a materialist teleology.

Full Product Details

Author:   Uta Felten ,  Anna-Sophia Buck ,  Sven Greitschus
Publisher:   Peter Lang AG
Imprint:   Peter Lang AG
Edition:   New edition
Volume:   54
Weight:   0.479kg
ISBN:  

9783631902103

ISBN 10:   3631902107
Pages:   316
Publication Date:   27 March 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Table of Figures 11 Abstract 13 Acknowledgements 15 Chapter 1 Darkness There: Introduction 17 Hypothesis 28 Methodology 31 Trajectory 33 Chapter 2 Compagnon’s Conundrum: Review of Baudelairean Modernity 41 Benjamin, Schizophrenia, dédoublement 45 Time, Trauma, Violence 60 Le Beau dans le mal: Ethics, Politics, ‘Second Empire Aesthetics’ 65 Le Mal 66 Le Beau 74 Le Beau moderne: Correspondances, Déchéance, ‘Baudelairean Aesthetics’ 102 Correspondances 113 Déchéance 119 La Seconde Révolution: Prose, Poetry, ‘Baudelairean Poetics’ 124 La Première Révolution 125 La Seconde Révolution 126 Part I: Analysis 133 Chapter 3 The a priori of Experiencing Modernity: A Return to Charles Baudelaire as the First Poet of Modernity 135 Perceiving Space and Time: Baudelaire’s Modern Artist and Child 141 Walter Benjamin and the First Poet of Modernity 148 Fragmented a priori and the Bergsonian Selves 157 Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience (1889) 161 ‘La Chambre double’ (1862): ‘Mais un coup terrible, lourd’ 168 Chapter 4 The Epistemological Dialectic of Experiencing Modernity: Between Individual and Instant 173 Photography, Memory, Imagination—and Happiness 178 ‘L’Horloge’ (1857): The Engagement with the Instant is Elitist 185 ‘L’Horloge’ (1860): The Engagement with the Instant is SocioCollective 188 Two Forms of Happiness 194 Idealist Epistemology in ‘A une passante’ 200 Hegelian Dialectic and the Instant as Object Itself 203 ‘Un éclair … puis la nuit!—Fugitive beauté’ 209 Part II: Synthesis 219 Chapter 5 The a posteriori of Experiencing Modernity: Representing Modern Human Existence 221 Exchange, Communication, the Blasé and the Dandy 226 ‘La Fausse Monnaie’ (1864): Exchange 228 ‘Les Yeux des pauvres’ (1864): Communication 241 ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ (1903): The Blasé and the Dandy 251 Darkness There: Society and Existence from the Viewpoint of Death 259 Chapter 6 Conclusion to Experiencing Modernity: Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris 277 ‘Les Projets de préface’ (posthumously between 1868–1968) 277 ‘Lettre à Arsène Houssaye’ (1862) 283 ‘Les Bons Chiens’ (1865) 286 Bibliography 295 Selected Primary Sources 295 Selected Secondary Sources 296 Index 307

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Author Information

Sven Greitschus studied European cultural history at Bangor and Cambridge before returning to Germany. His research interests included nineteenth-century art criticism, the intersection between politics and aesthetics as well as semiotic code. He now works as a department head at the Federal Employment Agency, where questions of social development and integrity remain of great interest.

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