Anastasia Ladopoulou (PhD Essex) is a researcher in aesthetics and art history
specializing in 20th century theory and practice ( Αυτή η διεύθυνση ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου προστατεύεται από κακόβουλη χρήση. Χρειάζεται να ενεργοποιήσετε την Javascript για να τη δείτε. )




Introduction

The 1936 essay “The Origin of the Work of Art” is an attempt to break with traditional aesthetic theories and this is one important philosophical aspect of the essay. The essay derived from a lecture delivered several times from 1935-1936, including an art historical society.
It was addressed to an art historical audience and that perhaps accounts for the less rigorous philosophical aspects of the essay.
I believe that this essay can be also criticized from within1. Moreover, as it is often noticed, this is not an easy task. The discouraging process of reading Heidegger’s obscure language is one reason, the seemingly obligatory engagement with his whole philosophical system is another.
One needs a point of entry, a fissure, in order to read Heidegger and criticize him on his own ground. What I suggest is that two things are important to do this:first to take into account Heidegger’s intention to break with the tradition of aesthetics and second that it is precisely the examination of its artistic examples that brings this essay to its interpretative limits...


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