What is Art?
Art was first used to understand the meaning of being. Through the arts, we recognize and realize our being. However, this is not just the sole function of art. Art is a means for and against alienation. For Charles Reitz, this is just the beginning of the iceberg.
In his book, Art, Alienation, and the Humanities: A Critical Engagement with Herbert Marcuse, the idea of the arts, especially literature, the role of the arts as an answer to alienation was highlighted. Using the idea of Herbert Marcuse, alienation is neither just a seizure of profit of the capitalists from the laborers nor the fetishization of a loss in society but a return to being by be-ing.
In the contemporary period, the relevance of the arts relies on the return to being. The arts became a cause for an advocacy that is for or against being. Interestingly, Charles Reitz explores the idea of the arts as against alienation and as alienation.
In treating the arts as against alienation, Charles Reitz used a very controversial term in the canon of Herbert Marcuse. This idea is the Lebensphilosophie or The Great Refusal. For Herbert Marcuse, art is a disclosure of truth present in the society and calling the “absent” in the society. It is a protest against unnecessary repression by living without anxiety (p. 183). A good example of this is the creation of feminist literature and paintings in forwarding the place of the woman in the society. Another example is the booming presence of LGBTQ+ in literature, paintings and movies.
In treating the arts as alienation, the identity of the arts in relation to the higher society cannot be removed. After all, the origin of art is alienating in nature with the artist distancing himself/herself from the society. The artist provides a new image of reality through his or her work. Going back to the example of feminist literature and paintings, the position of feminism is also alienating for them since they begin to turn some beliefs and practices in favor for their being to reach a holistic behavior in humanity.
Since art is treated as alienation and against alienation, we come to a conflicting nature of the arts. This is why the book claims that the movement of the arts to amplify being is simply a promise. The act of revolution itself depends on another platform but not on the arts. The arts act as a promise of liberation that has been putting being into the grasp of structures in the society. The Arts become a hope in the society. Capping this idea from the work of Herbert Marcuse, he wrote that, “art cannot redeem its promise, and reality offers no promises, only chances”.
Over all, the book maintained its clear stand on the nature of the arts as freeing and repressing. The relation of the arts to the Truth is still a problem to ponder on. Why is art essential for humans? Can we live without the arts? More than these questions, the book’s exposition of the history of the arts is commendable. I recommend this book though it was published way back 2000 since the history of the philosophy of the arts from the ancient period to the contemporary period is a gem that everyone should read.
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