Art and Emotion by Derek Matravers

by Derek Matravers

Derek Matravers examines how emotions form a bridge between our experience of art and of life. We often find that a particular poem, painting, or piece of music carries an emotional charge; and we may experience emotions towards, or on behalf of, a particular fictional character. These experiences are philosophically puzzling, for their causes seem quite different from the causes of emotion in the rest of our lives. Matravers shows that what these experiences have in common, and what links them to the expression of emotion in non-artistic cases, is the role played by feeling. He carries out a critical survey of various accounts of the nature of fiction, attacks contemporary cognitivist accounts of expression, and offers an uncompromising defence of a controversial view about musical that music expresses the emotions it causes its listeners to feel.

Genres: Art

Hardcover

First published June 4, 1998

Reviews

[Amy D.P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for the aesthetics or philosophy beginner. Matravers is a serious philosopher on a serious mission. If you are not familiar with basic aesthetics and philosophical terms and theories, you might want to keep a dictionary near you and perhaps access to Wikipedia!

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks for helping me finish my MA dissertation girlie, I read it in a fugue state but remember enjoying it