Politics of Aesthetics

Marc Redfield is Professor of English and holder of the John and Lillian Maguire Distinguished Chair in the Humanities at the Claremont Graduate University.

"This is a remarkable book of penetrating intelligence. Through a series of deft readings, Redfield shows us how the aesthetic is always entangled in lines of forces beyond art proper. He charts expertly how this works in key texts of the Romantic period, all the while demonstrating powerfully that what we call Romanticism is by no means simply a thing of the past."—Ian Balfour, York University "Redfield's indispensible book casts new and important light on what impedes modernity in the region of the aesthetic, and, by its brilliant example, demonstrates what comes of responding to that occlusion with an ethics of reading." - Studies in Romanticism "Readers of the book can expect insightful and interesting readings of de Man, philosophicalaesthetics, and romantic texts. Redfield's account of de Man's theory is both a lucidexplanation and spirited advocacy. Redfield's deconstructive account of the aesthetic, inparticular his discussions of form, is an intriguing reminder of the tension between the endsof aesthetic effects and their means, linguistic in the case of literature." - European Romantic Review