Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Aesthetics

Cynthia R. Nielsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas, where she teaches courses in the areas of hermeneutics, aesthetics, contemporary continental philosophy, and the history of philosophy. She has two previously published books; a forthcoming co-edited book, Gadamer’s Truth and Method: A Polyphonic Commentary (Rowman & Littlefield, March 2022); and her articles have appeared in journals such as Philosophy Today, Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, and Philosophy and Literature.

• IntroductionChapter 1: Kantian Resonances and DissonancesChapter 2: Hegelian Resonances and Dissonances (and A Heideggerian Coda)Chapter 3: Romare Bearden’s Collages and Art’s Address: On World De-fabrication and ReconfigurationChapter 4: Banksy, Street Art, and A Benjaminian CodaChapter 5: It’s All About (Hermeneutical) Movement: Play, Leeway, Difference, and a Coda on Free Jazz

"By placing Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics in critical dialogue with both key aesthetic theories of the philosophical tradition as well as with important contemporary artists and art movements, Nielsen’s well-conceived study develops a vibrant bridge between past and present that clearly demonstrates the continued relevance of Gadamer’s hermeneutics for our comprehension of the experience and understanding of art." – Daniel L. Tate, St. Bonaventure University, USA"Cynthia Nielson’s study of the historical impact of Kant’s aesthetics on Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics and of the application of philosophical hermeneutics to contemporary music and art practice, has transformative implications. By revealing the ontological frameworks which enable the works of Bearden and Bansky to be so effective, her book demonstrates the contemporaneousness of Gadamer’s hermeneutics. This volume is a notable achievement. It offers a doubled disclosure: whilst concretising Gadamer’s philosophical concepts in contemporary art practice, it also shows how art’s images reach beyond their immediacy by instantiating the structures of meaning informing them." – Nicholas Davey, University of Dundee, UK