The Concepts of the Sublime and the Beautiful in Kant and Lyotard

In: Constellations: an international journal of critical and democratic theory, Band 2, Heft 2, S. 207-223

Abstract

Outlines the classical formulations of the sublime & the beautiful through a reading of Immanuel Kant's The Critique of Judgment (Meredith, James Creed [Tr], 1928) & draws on Friedrich Schiller's interpretation of Kant to discuss the interconnection between gender & gender relations. The Kantian association of the beautiful as feminine results from a connection between imagination & understanding, while the association of the sublime with the masculine derives from a relationship between imagination & reason. Jean-Francois Lyotard's revival of the idea of the sublime as pertaining to art & art theory is differentiated from a Kantian concept through its elimination of the idea of nature & its lack of allusion to gender. It is suggested that Schiller's explicit elaboration on the importance of independence from nature demonstrates the human fear of nature & the transformation of that fear into a claim of superiority. In this context, it is contended that the masculine assault on nature has proven to be destructive & self-destructive. M. Greenberg