Review
"The deepest work in the philosophy of art is based on an engagement with art itself, rather than with what philosophers have written, who refer to art only as examples. Richard Kuhns's philosophy of the story and story-telling is derived from a close reading of Bocaccio's Decameron, viewed in the light of the literary history it engendered and the visual art it drew on, but also through the sexual psychology for which telling and hearing stories is a metaphor. His book, moreover, has something of the lightness and poetry of its subject, refreshingly free of the heavy burden of theory that has inflected to its detriment so much recent work in literary analysis. It is humanistic scholarship at its best." -- Arthur C. Danto, Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia Univerisity, author of The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art
Book Description
Kuhns approaches Decameronfrom a variety of literary, philosophical, and historical perspectives. He argues that Decameroncontains a theory of storytelling and reveals the ways in which Decameron'scomic and sexual elements lead into philosophical debate and moral argument. Kuhns also suggests that Decameronis one of the first self-conscious creations of a "total work of art."
About the Author
Richard Kuhns is professor emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University. He is the author of a number of works on the philosophical analysis of literature, including Tragedy: Contradiction and Repression; Psychoanalytic Theory of Art; Structures of Experience; and a study of Aeschylus's Oresteia.
Decameron and the Philosophy of Storytelling FROM THE PUBLISHER
Boccaccio's highly entertaining and occasionally bawdy fourteenth-century classic Decameron, which has influenced Shakespeare, Chaucer, Melville, Calvino, and countless other writers, offers contemporary readers a range of literary pleasures and philosophical insights. In this creative and engaging reading of the book, Richard Kuhns presents original ways of interpreting and discovering the hidden meanings of Decameron. Kuhns approaches the work from a variety of literary, philosophical, and historical perspectives. He argues that Decameron contains a theory of storytelling within the stories themselves, showing that a philosophy of the genre can be expressed in the process of telling. Kuhns reveals the ways in which Decameron's comic and sexual elements lead into philosophical debate and moral argument. In uncovering the meanings of sexual metaphors in the work, Kuhns also shows how Boccaccio viewed the relationship between storyteller and audience in sexual terms. Finally, Kuhns suggests that Decameron is one of the first self-conscious creations of "A Total Work of Art." Throughout the stories, Boccaccio draws on trecento Italian culture, integrating painting, poetry, musical performance, and dramatic scenes into his work.
Art & Photography
Book Info
