Chiasmatic Encounters: Art, Ethics, Politics

(Hardback)

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The concept of chiasm has played major role in continental philosophy, where it has referred to various phenomenological and hermeneutic structures of reversibility, intertwining, and encounter. In Chiasmatic Encounters: Art, Ethics, Politics, fourteen international contributors representing various fields of expertise analyze this central concept and its significance for contemporary cultural theory. The authors discuss the work of major philosophers like Merleau-Ponty, Beauvoir, Habermas, Levinas, Derrida, and Deleuze, adapting their ideas of chiasmatic relations to cultural analysis. As the internal and external horizons of perception and experience are intertwined and reversed, various cultural texts, like a Vermeer painting, a symphony of Sibelius, a David Lynch movie, or a young girl walking in her summer dress, are seen from new and unexpected angles. The book also addresses the chiasmatic crossing between ethics and politics-- between unconditional ethical responsibility and always conditional political choices. Representing the cutting edge of contemporary cultural theory and interdisciplinary thinking, Chiasmatic Encounters is essential reading for anyone working in continental philosophy, aesthetics, or political theory.

Author Bio

Kuisma Korhonen is professor of literature at the University of Oulu. Arto Haapala is professor of aesthetics at the University of Helsinki. Sara Heinmaa is senior lecturer and docent in theoretical philosophy at the University of Helsinki. Kristian Klockars is university lecturer in social and moral philosophy at the University of Helsinki. Pajari Rsnen is postdoctoral researcher in comparative literature at the University of Helsinki.