A Theory of Art

What, if anything, has art to do with the rest of our lives, and in particular with those ethical and political issues that matter to us most? Will art created today be likely to play a role in our lives as profound as that of the best art of the past?

A Theory of Art shifts the focus of aesthetics from the traditional debate of "what is art?" to the engaging question of "what is art for?" Skillfully describing the social and historical situation of art today, author Karol Berger argues that music exemplifies the current condition of art in a radical, acute, and revealing fashion. He also uniquely combines aesthetics with poetics and hermeneutics. Offering a careful synthesis of a wide breadth of scholarship from art history, musicology, literary studies, political philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics, and written in a clear, accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in the arts.

Library Journal

Here, musicologist Berger (fine arts, Stanford Univ.) does nothing less than pull back the reins of postmodernism in favor of what could be called a balanced modernism. Using an approach similar to anthropological functionalism, he probes the purpose of art instead of attempting to describe what art is. To support his arguments, he draws from the major art forms, citing, along the way, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Kant (to name a few). What will probably strike readers most is his conclusion that for art to have meaning, it needs to be interpreted, which requires comparison and thus discrimination. He argues for a movement away from an anthropological definition of culture toward one provided by Enlightenment philosophers as articulated by Hegel, one that is relatively more universal and rational--as detailed throughout the book. A word of warning, though: Karol presupposes a background in all the arts and a basic understanding of Western philosophy. So while it is valuable for students of aesthetics, this book is fairly difficult reading.--Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Coll. of Art & Design Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Karol Berger Is Osgood Hooker Professor in Fine Arts at Stanford University. He is the author of numerous studies in the history of music aesthetics and theory, vocal pholyphony from 1400 to 1600, and instrumental music from 1780 to 1850. His Musica Ficta (1987) won the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society.