Literary Readings in Aesthetic Theory

The seminar will examine not just the major themes but also the rhetorical complexities of a number of powerful texts in the history of aesthetic theory. Authors to be considered include Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Burke, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno. Literary texts will be considered in conjunction with these texts, sometimes by way of famous arguments or exchanges (e.g., Heidegger and Staiger on Mörike).