Ästhetik

This introduction provides an overview of key theories of aesthetics from the Enlightenment to the present day. It introduces basic concepts, historical developments, and current debates, combining classical texts (from Immanuel Kant to Walter Benjamin and Th. W. Adorno to Felix Guattari) with cultural studies, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives (Sara Ahmed, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, among others). Based on situated case studies and in-depth discussions, the book demonstrates how aesthetic experience, cognition, and social reality are mutually interrelated. The volume is therefore ideally suited as a fundamental work for students of philosophy, humanities and cultural studies.