The Concept of the Animal and Modern Theories of Art

This book examines the importance of the animal in modern art theory, using classic texts of modern aesthetics and texts written by modern artists to explore the influence of the human-animal relationship on nineteenth and twentieth century artists and art theorists. The book is unique due to its focus on the concept of the animal, rather than on images of animals, and it aims towards a theoretical account of the connections between the notions of art and animality in the modern age. Roni Grén’s book spans various disciplines, such as art theory, art history, animal studies, modernism, postmodernism, posthumanism, philosophy, and aesthetics.

Table of ContentsList of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1 The Exceptionality of the Human SpiritThe Human ExceptionNatural AestheticsOrigin and LanguageNature Created in Man’s ImageTo Have and Have NotPart 2 The Animal and the ImageIntroduction: Discourse and ImagicityCondillac and Animal ImaginationRousseau and the Noble VisualDiderot’s SuspicionA Concluding NotePart 3 Art and EvolutionIntroduction: Darwin’s CenturyThe Subjective and the ObjectiveThe Crisis of Symbolism and the Violent OtherEvolution of the Species and the Creative SentimentNietzschePart 4 The Poetic LieThe Primitive Origin of ArtGaze and the InvisibleThe World of Abstraction and the Revolution of the BeastsDream, Debauchery, MythPart 5 Conclusion: The Modern OtherAnimalization of ArtThe Formalist World of CreationThe Surrealist SolutionsThe Animal ItselfAfterwordBibliographyIndexTable of ContentsList of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1 The Exceptionality of the Human SpiritThe Human ExceptionNatural AestheticsOrigin and LanguageNature Created in Man’s ImageTo Have and Have NotPart 2 The Animal and the ImageIntroduction: Discourse and ImagicityCondillac and Animal ImaginationRousseau and the Noble VisualDiderot’s SuspicionA Concluding NotePart 3 Art and EvolutionIntroduction: Darwin’s CenturyThe Subjective and the ObjectiveThe Crisis of Symbolism and the Violent OtherEvolution of the Species and the Creative SentimentNietzschePart 4 The Poetic LieThe Primitive Origin of ArtGaze and the InvisibleThe World of Abstraction and the Revolution of the BeastsDream, Debauchery, MythPart 5 Conclusion: The Modern OtherAnimalization of ArtThe Formalist World of CreationThe Surrealist SolutionsThe Animal ItselfAfterwordBibliographyIndex

Ph.D. Roni Grén is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku, Finland. His topics of research have been centered on modern art theory and French culture. Formerly, he has written a book on Georges Bataille’s writings on art, and is currently working on research entitled "Prehistory and Modernism."