Towards a Productive Aesthetics: Contemporary and Historical Interventions in Blake and Brecht
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Towards a Productive Aesthetics: Contemporary and Historical Interventions in Blake and Brecht
By (Author) Keith O'Regan
Haymarket Books
Haymarket Books
14th March 2023
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
809.933582
Physical Properties
Paperback
248
Width 152mm, Height 228mm
Description
In Towards a Productive Aesthetics: Contemporary and Historical Interventions in Blake and Brecht, Keith O'Regan mobilises a constellative approach to compare the political-aesthetic strategies of William Blake (1757-1827) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). O'Regan traces two similar trajectories in each author's work: an exploration of how capitalist domination defines conjunctures, and an investigation of how historical figures, themes, and terrains illustrate past failures or losses that can be cleaved open for radical possibilities in the present. Brecht and Blake posit an "oppositional aesthetics of the now" that articulates a theory of experience under capitalism, while counter-posing an oppositional form of existence.
Author Bio
Keith O'Regan teaches in the Writing and Humanities Departments of York University. His recent publications centre on comparative analyses of historical and contemporary film, and writing and graduate education.
