Critical Aesthetic: A Study Of Agamben's Literary And Art Views On Potentiality

There is no doubt that potentiality occupies a very important position in Agamben's large and profound ideological system.Potentiality is clearly or implicitly displayed in the academic context of Agamben,which can be found in his discussions on literature and art,linguistic philosophy,or biopolitics,religions and theology.This thesis addresses his literary theory by taking the thought of potentiality as a sort of critical aesthetics,emphasizing that it is not only able to do something,but also can not do something and that it can be both being and not-being.At the same time,it also reveals Agamben's profound reflections and concerns on the problems of modern literature and art.Therefore,this study not only explains the meaning of Agamben's literary concept of potentiality,but also elucidates how potentiality theory is embodied in his modern literary criticism.This paper reviews the academic research process of Agamben's potential thoughts all the world,focusing on his academic works and ideological development.The author mainly explores Agamben's potential of literature and art from four aspects: philosophical support,core categories,literary deduction and artistic purport.The first part traces the origin of the concept of potential.Agamben absorbed the essence of Aristotle's thought of potential and integrated Heidegger to explain the philosophical methodology of existence and thought,and also benefited from Derrida's "trace" and "extension",and linked up Deleuze's internal and generative theory,so as to construct its unique aesthetic system of potential.The second part refines the core connotation of potential aesthetics to the critical state of "the threshold of being and not-being".In Agamben's view,potential is not limited to the ability to do or do not,but to have the potential to not-do,and potential not to pass into actuality,specifically as "holding some kind of loss" and "Messiah redemption".The third part focuses on the critical point between speech and non-speaking,and explains how Agamben's potentiality thought is realized in the field of literature.Literature displays the world and shows itself through the weapon of language,but endless speech is not the only way to achieve a strong effect.Literature can still express the infinite power of speech through the way of non-speaking.The fourth part discusses Agamben's thoughts on the salvation path of modern art crisis.In the examination of modern art,Agamben regards "nothingness" as the most important feature,in the art constantly moves towards nothingness,Agamben reveals that is not the end and death in the real sense,but the pure power of "nothingness" in the critical aesthetics.Agamben rediscovered the concept of poesis from ancient Greece,the process of entering from nothing to the existence,a broad sense of "birth-production"(pro-duction),and appealed to human beings to be able to return to this creation and to face the original structure of art.In a word,Agamben's potential aesthetics provides a new angle of interpretation for modern literature and art,and seeks a possible breakthrough for modern art in crisis.