Discerning Architectures of Meaning Through an Ethics and Aesthetics of Sense
Publication Type |
Thesis |
Year of Publication |
2001 |
Author |
|
Pages |
80 |
Publisher |
Graduate Theological Union |
Work Type |
MA thesis |
Language |
English |
Publish Dates |
2001 |
Keywords |
aesthetics |
Annotation |
Drawing from the English translations of Weil's Notebooks, Guthrie begins with a discussion of Weil's aesthetics, including Weil's notions of attention and decreation. She then uses Weil's ideas to reflect on the work of the journalist Philip Gourevitch, the photographer Gilles Peress, the poet/reporter Antjie Krog and finally the novelist Michael Ondaatje. All of these people are, Guthrie says, "looking at societies at war or at a people suffering persecution and genocide" and "offer examples of how art may alter vision so that one begins to see creatively in the Weilian sense". (p. 4).The chapter on Peress, briefly considers Weil's view of attention found in Waiting on God, while the chapter on Krog contains a more extensive discussion of decreation, necessity affliction and beauty, drawing upon both Weil's work and secondary sources about it. The final chapter on Ondaatje considers Weil's reflections on art, beauty and attention. |