Referring to a past that never was; deacute;jagrave; vu shares a structure not only with fiction; but also with the ever more sophisticated effects of media technology. Tracing the term from the end of the nineteenth century; when it was first popularized in the pages of the Revue philosophique; Peter Krapp examines the genealogy and history of the singular and unrepeatable experience of deacute;jagrave; vu. This provocative book offers a refreshing counterpoint to the clicheacute;d celebrations of cultural memory and forces us do a double take on the sanctimonious warnings against forgetting so common in our time.Disturbances of cultural memoryscreen memories; false recognitions; premonitionsdisrupt the comfort zone of memorial culture: strictly speaking; deacute;jagrave; vu is neither a failure of memory nor a form of forgetting. Krapps analysis of such disturbances in literature; art; and mass media introduces; historicizes; and theorizes what it means to speak of an economy of attention or distraction. Reaching from the early psychoanalytic texts of Sigmund Freud to the plays of Heiner Muuml;ller; this exploration of the effects of deacute;jagrave; vu pivots around the work of Walter Benjamin and includes readings of kitsch and aura in Andy Warhols work; of cinematic violence and certain exaggerated claims about shooting and cutting; of the memorial character of architecture; and of the high expectations raised by the Internet.
#1046147 in eBooks 2003-09-06 2003-09-06File Name: B0041T51GO
Review
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful. The true human. the true artistic. vocation is to transcend oneself.By OAKSHAMAN_Titus Burckhardt was one of the great expositors of the perennial philosophy. along with the Traditionalists Rene Guenon. Ananda Coomaraswamy. and Frithjof Schuon. It is obvious to me that he truly experienced what he wrote upon. To him Intellection was not an abstract metaphysical principle. This is the miracle of true contemplative thought in the modern age._His emphasis tended more to the nature of what constitutes sacred art. That is why this volume is so well illustrated with both color plates. as well as. black and white images. His central message is that Tradition possesses a secret power that is communicated to an entire civilization; even in those arts and crafts whose objects include nothing particularly sacred. In a theocratic society. the humblest activity participates in heavenly benediction. In contrast. "sacred art" in the West since the Renaissance is essentially profane art with only a superficial religious theme._There are some thick. but important. volumes that you find yourself despairing that you will ever get to the end of. However. this thick volume of the essential Burckhardt (like its sister volume on the essential Schuon) is such a joy to read that you never want it to come to an end. Unlike drier works. every page restores your soul instead of draining it.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A Nice Overview Of A Perennial TraditionalistBy Kevin FullerTitus Burckhardt. whether fixing his attention on the proper philosophy. or the proper architecture. or the proper occultism. brings a liberal yet formiddable intelligence to whichever of these works he sets his hand to.Burckhardt. when laying out a sacred temple. would have it oriented north-south with one door leading in and one door leading out. ensuring its earthly and squarely relationship to its heavenly and circular origin. The language and ideas both sound archaic due to a radical loss of traditional forms and even degenerate customs to the point that what is old now sounds new. Burckhardt. Im sure. would delight in such a circular manifestation of tradition. In a society where number has lost its gender. where sacred art has lost its object. and philosophy its inner meaning. Burckhardts plaintive sentences recall all of this and brings the perennial philosophy to bear in many of its traditional manifestations. This philosophy. this perennialism is shown by virtue of mans loss of meaning when he attempts to abandon it. quite simply will not go away. Or will it?0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Amazing writer and thinker!By CaseyAmazing book. Highly recommend!
