PHIL 361/599 Philosophy of Art and Beauty

Spring 1998 - California State University, Long Beach


Lecture Notes: Week Eight: Expressionism

This week we look at another dominant aesthetic theory in this century, expressionism. Tolstoy's version is a rather crude one, but it has several interesting elements that you will see identified in the discussion questions:

http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r14.html

Other expressionist theorists include R.G. Collingwood, Benedetto Croce, E. F. Carritt, and John Dewey.

They are all "essentialist" theories -- that is, they believe they have identified the "essence" of art. They share the view that this essence is an inner feeling or emotion which is expressed externally in the physical manifestation of art -- whether a painting, sound waves, or moving bodies in dance. The theorists disagree on the ways in which they characterize the inner feeling or emotion of the artist and the properties of the work itself.

On the positive side, expressionism does seem to capture an important element of art valued by many artists and art lovers. Artists often speak of what they are "expressing." Art lovers, critics, etc. often speak of what they think the artist is trying to "express." So the theory is consistent with much of our actual talk about art and seems to explain at least part of what we understand as "art." Notice that this understanding of art emphasizes the relationship between the artist and the art object.

But there are problems with expressionism that we should also explore this week. Is it true that every single art work can best be understood as an expression of some internal feeling or emotion of the artist? Are there examples of works for which this account makes no sense? Must the artist actually feel whatever emotion is supposedly present in the work -- e.g., if the music is "sad," must the composer have been "sad" when she/he created it? See if you can come up with counter-examples that don't seem to fit the expressionist's model.

Some theorists have tried to revise expressionism to say that the work itself is metaphorically an expression of a particular feeling or emotion -- regardless of what the artist may or may not have been feeling. E.g., to say the music expresses "sadness" means that the work is "metaphorically sad" even if the composer was not sad. This approach puts more emphasis on the relationship between the object of art and the perceiver/observer -- we experience the sadness in the work, regardless of what the artist was feeling.

Tolstoy's approach involves all of these elements. Art requires a communication by the artist that is manifested in the art object. In addition, the test of successful art is whether the artist effectively communicates that feeling to the observer.

In studying Tolstoy's writing, work through all the discussion questions as a guide to the main points he makes. For our discussion, you are free to discuss any questions you want, but let me suggest special attention to questions #2, 7, 9, and 12. Please skip #13, though -- as you know, this is one of the options for short paper II.

We have just passed the half-way point in our 15-week semester. Please remember that the discussion grade for the first half will be based on your participation through Sunday, March 22.

The readings for next week (Week Nine) are on-line at another site, an aesthetics journal at the University of Toronto. To get to them:

(1) click "assignments" and then "course syllabus: reading assignments" and you'll see the reading for the semester. Hyperlinks are set up there to the Toronto articles.

alternatively:

(2) click "resources" then "on-line reading." That also will take you to the list of reading for the semester.

These are not easy readings, but I want to give you an introductory sense of where aesthetic theory is, at the end of the 20th century. I'll give you summaries of these next week, along with a few questions to consider in our discussion. I expect that most of you will be pre-occupied with Short Paper II that week!


Continue to Lecture Notes for Week Nine (posted 3/23/98)

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Questions and comments are welcome: jvancamp@csulb.edu

This page written and maintained by Julie Van Camp

Copyright Julie C. Van Camp 1998

Last updated: March 16, 1998