PhD thesis PART 2

ABSTRACT: Since its inception quantum physics has instituted an ongoing reappraisal of how we describe the Universe. At the end of the 20th century, having reached its empirical limits, physics presents us with the limits of our power to represent the world, effecting a convergence of contemporary thought in which the key themes are ‘indeterminacy’, ‘uncertainty’, and ‘unknowability.’ Dealing in entities and concepts that defy the imagination, the discourse of contemporary physics is characterised by a combination of science and metaphysics, of the rational and the mystical, and of explanation and speculation. Trading in issues of limits and limitlessness, unity and fragmentation and the tension between the whole and the parts that have historically preoccupied all philosophical enquiry, physics offers partial presentations of a totality which, as a totality, is unpresentable. This thesis argues that the representational problems encountered by physics can be more effectively mounted in aesthetic terms. Specifically, twentieth century physics embodies an implicit and unacknowledged aesthetic of the sublime within its discourse. In occasioning imaginative representations that strive after something which lies beyond the bounds of experience, descriptions of the quantum realm in physicists’ writings disclose an aesthetic appraisal of the sublimity of nature that revives the Romanticist link between nature and aesthetics first established by Kant in the Critique of Judgement. Thus, physics can be located within the framework of the Kantian sublime. Adopting a methodological approach grounded in hermeneutics, I draw directly from physicists’ writing to bring together the field of post-Kantian philosophical aesthetics and the post-quantum philosophy of science. I conclude that a ‘quantum romanticism’ permeates discussions of physics whereupon the encounter with the unpresentable is enforcing a shift to the poetic within the discourse analogous to the transition from representation to poiesis in Romantic aesthetics. In identifying knowledge of nature with the Absolute the discourse of physics is characterised by themes of ekstasis and transcendence that disclose a moral imperative which is embodied in Kant’s judgement of the sublime. Hence, as a symbol of the mind’s relation to a transcendent order, physics enters the field opened up by the aesthetics of the sublime.

One of the main objectives of this study is the investigation of the affinity between literary/philosophical thought and the concept of terrorism. This phenomenon of extreme asymmetric violence will be studied both, through philosophy/literature and as (a form of) literature and philosophy, to the extent that literary thinking, what I more broadly call “literariness,” already lurks in the discourse, representation, as well as the very practice of terrorism. For instance, symbolism, theatrical display and rhetorical skills admittedly permeate the terrorist mindset. In this light, special attention will be paid also to the interrelatedness between aesthetics and terror or terrorism as the latter developed from the late nineteenth-century onwards. By the term “aesthetics,” this study does not mean “beauty” but rather focused perceptual or artistic sensibility. The perceptual or aesthetic, in the sense of “feeling,” is crucial for understanding and accurately representing terrorism, whereas journalistic language and reasoned political and sociological discourse, due to their lack of faith in the power of imagination, cannot fully grasp the immensity, terrible immediacy, radical symbolism and “literariness” of a terrorist act.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY SUBLIMES THE TURN FROM MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISM: BARNETT NEWMAN, AGNES MARTIN AND ANDY WARHOL Albert Simpson Advisor: University of Guelph, 2017 Professor Amanda Boetzkes This thesis is an investigation of historical notions of the sublime and their culmination in both the “modern sublime” (demonstrated in the work of Barnett Newman and Agnes Martin) and the “postmodern sublime” (particularly through the practices of Andy Warhol). It addresses the historical development of the concept of the sublime, and the redistributions of that concept among Newman, Martin and Warhol. It also considers the roles of gender and sexual identity within sublime aesthetics. The thesis works with Fredric Jameson’s theorization of the relationship between the postmodern and late capitalism, as well as Caroline Jones’ account of the modern “egotistical” sublime and the postmodern “performative technological sublime,” to argue that postmodern practice was a response to the rigidities o...

This article reviews the notion of the sublime as it is regarded in a few of the most influential texts in Western philosophy. Modern sublime that is elaborated in the works of Edmund Burke and Kant is influenced by the ancient text Peri Hypsous. Later, Lyotard takes up the sublime to interpret Modern and Postmodern visual art. The sublime is necessarily linked to art. It is the notion that presents existential (spiritual) questions such as existence of God and meaning of human life. Art has been the realm where such questions are tackled. Sublime is the artistic way to spirituality, and works of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko display that.

This thesis is an investigation of historical notions of the sublime and their culmination in both the “modern sublime” (demonstrated in the work of Barnett Newman and Agnes Martin) and the “postmodern sublime” (particularly through the practices of Andy Warhol). It addresses the historical development of the concept of the sublime, and the redistributions of that concept among Newman, Martin and Warhol. It also considers the roles of gender and sexual identity within sublime aesthetics. The thesis works with Fredric Jameson’s theorization of the relationship between the postmodern and late capitalism, as well as Caroline Jones’ account of the modern “egotistical” sublime and the postmodern “performative technological sublime,” to argue that postmodern practice was a response to the rigidities of modernism and formalist criticism. Finally, it clarifies, through some elements of their personal histories, the connections of the three artists within the New York art world and with each other.