From "Phenomenological Body" to "Reversible Flesh": the Transformation of Merleau-Ponty's Aesthetic Theory

Shu Zhifeng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (6) : 194-203.

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Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (6) : 194-203.
Western Literary Theory and Studies in Aesthetics

From "Phenomenological Body" to "Reversible Flesh": the Transformation of Merleau-Ponty's Aesthetic Theory

  • Shu Zhifeng
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Abstract

Merleau-Ponty's philosophical thinking is also aesthetics. Such an openness is vital for him, since it concerns the sensitivity and becoming of selfhood philosophy, without being trapped in the dilemma in traditional philosophy. With the transition from the "phenomenological body" to the "reversible flesh" in his philosophy, Merleau-Ponty' aesthetics shifts from perception and sensibility to ontology and "element". In his early works Cézanne's Doubt, Indirect Language and The Voice of Silence, and late work Eye and Mind, painting is always central to Merleau-Ponty's aesthetic thinking, because the pure "vision" in painting refers to the visual dimension that is ignored and marginalized in conscious philosophy. The visual dimension concerns the opening of the primordial world and becoming of the structure of "visible and invisible".

Key words

Merlaeu-Ponty / body / flesh / aesthetics

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Shu Zhifeng . From "Phenomenological Body" to "Reversible Flesh": the Transformation of Merleau-Ponty's Aesthetic Theory[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2017, 37(6): 194-203

References

[1]Barbaras, Renaud.The Being of the Phenomenon:MerleauPonty’s Ontology.Bloomington and Indianapolis:Indiana University Press, 2004. [2]Gombrich, E.H..The Story of Art.New York:Phaidon Press, 2006. [3]Johnson, Galen A..The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader:Philosophy and Painting.Evanston:Northwestern University Press, 1993. [4]Merleau-Ponty, Maurice.Cézanne’s Doubt.Trans.Hubert Dreyfus.Evanston:Northwestern University Press, 1993. [5]---.Eye and Mind.Trans.James M.Edie.Evanston:Northwestern University Press, 1993. [6]---.Indirect Language and the Voice of Silence.Trans.Richard C.Mc Cleary.Evanston:Northwestern University Press, 1993. [7]---.Phenomenology of Perception.Trans.Donald A.Lands.New York:Routledge, 2014. [8]---.The Visible and the Invisible.Trans.Alphonso Lingis.Evanston:Northwestern University Press, 1968. [9]Schapiro, Meyer.Cézanne.New York:Harry N.Abrams, Incorporated, 2004.
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