[2a] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY we shal seater, however, th satizing and “ironing ull Ise posta the consti with which hey Mrkmay be evegerened es hey pe elec gmretiose. is we thle to demonstrate eat eth all constituent {tsi emanation ne algal eee ae Se hms mehr nis atthe setae icinsiouncs sn ono: pagan nie ate Sips withim ey Soe paces wai in wc the bree ee ee Selleto dems hha cence ‘enced as aesthetic values by the hero in himself, an nally ve Shall vet eash thee imerconne a al we ‘constituents of form—with image and thythin.* tary and unique participant, there can be thing wanqeiient otal nothing stated ote ide—such a com: there is only one unit ‘no aesthetic event. An absolute ast ‘An absolute consciousness, and capable of delimiting it from outer event begins (polemical tract, ‘or of praise and gratitude, invec: ing, ete). When there s no hero Event that is cognitive (teats ‘when the other consciousnese is Of God, a religous event takes , article, lecture). And, finally, he encompassing consciousness lace [prayer, worship, ritual ‘The Spatial Form of the Hero 1 [The Excess of Seeing} Sideand ones pets & whole human being eho is situated ou Sen da cea cece exeened ch given moment, repardless of AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [23] the position and the proximity to me of this other human being ‘whom I am contemplating, I shall always see and know some- thing that he, from his place outside and over against me, cannot see himself: parts of his body that are inaccessible to his own gaze (his head, his face and its expression], the world behind his back, and a whole series of objects and relations, which in any of our ‘mutual relations are accessible to me but not to him. As we gaze at each other, two different worlds are reflected in the pupils of ‘our eyes. eis possible, upon assuming an appropriate position, to reduce this diference of horizons to a minimum, but in order to annihilate this difference completely, it would be necessary to ‘menge into one, to become one and the same person. ‘This ever present excess of my seeing, knowing, and possessing inzelation to any other human being is founded in the uniqueness and irreplaceability of my place in the world. For only I—the one~ and-only I—occupy in a given set of circumstances this particular place at this particulae time; all other human beings are situated outside me. Cognition surmounts this concrete outsideness of me myself and the outsideness-for-me of all other human beings, a8 well as the excess of my seeing in relation to each one of them, which is founded in that position of outsideness. Cognition constructs a unitary and universally valid world, a world independent in every respect from that concrete and unique pasition which is occupied by this or that individual For cognition, there is no absolutely in convertible relationship of I and all others; for cognition, “land the other.” inasmuch as they are being thought, constitute arela- tionship that is relative and convertible, since the cognitive sub- Jectum'as such does not occupy any determinate, concrete place in being However, this unitary world of cognition cannot be perceived a8 a unique concrete whole, charged with the manifold quali of being, the way we perceive a particular landscape, dramatic seene, this particular building, ete. For what the actual perception of a concrete whole presupposes is that the contemplator 0c: *Contelative with this exces, there is certain deficiency foe precisely that which only I seein the other is sen i myself, kewis, only by the other Bu this not essential for us i the present conten, because the Inertelationship of T—the other” isnot convertible or me in lved Ife ‘many concrete way.[asl AuTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY i en es cnr atcna cs ce aa rose actions, that is, which render the other complete pre- ist deca eee sisi lpm Posi Of act es oval certain stable constancy. by of their outward sense, involve myself and the nt of being,” and which ionof the event and of the folds tikes se form, and whence form un But inorder "ler that this bud should really unfold into the blossom AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [25] of consummating form, the excess of my seeing must “Allin” the horizon of the other human being who is being contemplated, ‘muist render his horizon complete, without at the same time for feiting his distinctiveness. I must empathize or project myself into this other human being, sce his world axiologically from Within him as he sees this world, ! must put myself in his place and then, after returning to my own place, "fill in” his horizon through that excess of seeing which opens out from this, my own, place outside him. I must enframe him, ereate a consummating environment for him out ofthis excess of my own seeing, know- ing, desiring, and feeling Let us say that there is a human being before me who is suffer- ing. The horizon of his consciousness is filled by the circum stance which makes him suffer and by the objects which he sees before him. The emotional and volitional tones which pervade this visible world of objects are tones of suffering, What Ihave to ois to experience and consummate him aesthetically (ethical tions, such as assistance, rescue, consolation, are excluded im this case), The frst step in aesthetic activity is my projecting myself, {nto him and experiencing his ife from within him must expe rence—come to sce and to know—what he experiences; | must, put myself in his place and coineide with him, as it were. (How this projection of myself into him is possible and in what form— the psychological problem of such projection—we shall not con- sider here. It is enough for our purposes that such projection, within certain limits, is possible in fact.) I must appropriate to myself the conerete life horizon of this human being as he expert fences it himself, a whole series of features accessible to me from :my own place will urn out to be absent irom within this other's horizon, Thus, the person suffering does not experience the full: ‘ness of his own outward expressedness in being; he experiences this expressedness only partially, and then in the language of his inner sensations of himself, He does not se the agonizing tension of his own muscles, does not see the entire, plastically consur- mated posture of his own body, or the expression of suffering on his own face, He does not see the clea blue sky against the back: round of which his suffering outward image is delineated for me. ‘And even if he were able to see all these features—if, for example, hhe were in front of a mirror—he would lack the appropriate emo- tional and volitional approach to these features. That is, they[26] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY fencer mt ete poe a Wace ectane erin seu Seater nsec ree sect gar re ale shueomengurmmnnt meme ghccin Seema tain etre enn cele Sh neah ict iat fem er iucive projection into the other and copnition of the other Lot roe imae sun tata gece eer AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [27] tures no longer have the function of informing but have a new function, the funetion of consummating. The position of his body which had frst informed us about his sufering and which led us to his inward suffering now takes on a purely plastic value, be- ‘comes an expression which embodies and consummates the sul fering expressed, and the emotional and volitional tones of this cexpressedness are no longer the tones of suffering. The clear blue sky that enframes him becomes a pictorial feature which con: Ssumnmates and resolves his suffering. And all these values that ‘consummated the image of the other were drawn by me from the ‘excess of my secing, volition, and feeling, it should be kept in mind that the constitutive moments of, projecting oneself into the other and of consummating the other ddo not follow one another chronologically; we must emphasize that the sense of each is different, although in living experience projection and consummation afe intimately intertwined and fuse with one another. In a verbal work, every word keeps both ‘moments in view: every word performs a ewofold function insofar as it directs my projection of myself into the other as well as brings him to completion, except that one constitutive moment ‘may prevail over the other (Our most immediate task is to examine those plastic-pictorial, spatial values which are transgredient to the hero's conscious ress and his world, ransgredient to his cognitive-ethical stance in the world, and which consummate him from outside, from an ‘others consciousness of him-—the consciousness of the author! ccontemplator. 2. [Outward Appearance) ‘The first matter we must consider is the exterior or outward ap- pearance as the totality ofall expressive, “speaking” features of the human body. How do we experience our own exterior! And how do we experience outward appearance in the other! On what plane of lived experience docs the aesthetic value of outward ap. pearance lie? Such are the questions we shall now take up. ‘There can be no doubs, of course, that my own exterior is not part of the concrete, actual horizon of my seeing, except for those rare cases when, like Narcissus, I contemplate my own reflection in the water of in a mirror. My own exterior {that is, all of theLas] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY by me rom within yall. 1s oly in the frm of seated fa Sh coisa counter my own outward expressedness in being as an oUtw: Sy racer rnee ite Tate nearer am not connatural with it. While my thought can place my bod! Soy ceiicae ote n acencne git Y actual seeing cannot do the same thing, my seeing, that is, Fane ae 0 the a of thinking by providing it with an ade- we cur to our creative i tasies about who congue al heats wi Yeti dong solace any 44e, wheeas images cer most ondary ones, pee ‘arkableclaty and completeness doo eon lh eg, lve ot ear on ter lace athe eo rem she dt nln eral thts st dee 's extraordinary glory, and so forth. co my oval reagan inmyaea ea ie thematnes tomes etn AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [29] perience from within.** in tis respect, fantasy does nt fill the Tacunae of actual perception it has no need to do that. “The diference in the planes on which persons exist in fantasy is particularly clearcut when st hasan eotie character: the longed forheroine attains the highest degree of outward distinctness that cour representation is capable of achieving; but the hero—the dreamer himsell—experiences himself in his desires and his love from within himself and remains quite unexpressed outwardly ‘The same divergence of planes occurs in the dreams we have in cur sleep. Yer when I begin to recount my fantasy or my dream to nother person, have to transpose the leading actor co the same plane as that ofthe other participants even when the story is told inthe frst person). And, sn any case, Ihave to take into account the fact that al the participants in the story, including myself, will be perceived by the listener on one and the same plastic: Pictorial plane; because all of them are, for him, others. fis pre- ly in this thatthe difference lies between the word of artistic ‘ercation and the world of dreaming.3s well as that of actual Ife. In the world of artistic eretion, all the participants arc equally ex- pressed on one and the same plastic and pictorial pane of seeing, ‘whereas in lite and sn dreams the main hero—I myself—Is never expressed outwardly and requires no outward image. The frst task an artist must accomplish is to invest with outward bedi ness this leading actor of life and of dreaming about life. Some times, when uneducated people read. a novel nonaristically arts tic perception is replaced by dreaming, this i, however, not free dreaming, but a passive form of dreaming that is predetermined by the novel. Such a reader projects himself into the main hero Alstogards all the features that consummate the hero (the her's ‘exterior, frst ofall, and expericnees the hero's life as i he were himself the hero of that he. One can, of course, make the attempt to visualize one’s own ‘outward image in imagination, to “feel” oneself from outside, to anslat oneself the language a nner ell ematon io that of outward expressedness in being But this is fa from easy to So-terequiresa special apd unusual ert and this dfculty and effort are quite unlike those we experience when trying recall the not-too-amiliar and half-forgotten face of another person. ‘What is involved is less a matter of having an insufficient mem- ony of our own outward appeatance than it isa matter of a certain fundamental resistance exerted by our outward image, One canNol AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY ie ye pc gr er atin ri a, Koo Sn te ace sarcasm aie Wh cane shal spa as me dered one wi tasted rath ach coarse ate ant or ate not directly applicable to the outwat Sa Howey arpiabe tothe outward exreseness of ty ‘emptines and slitarnes. in order to vivily my own outwar ‘concretely viewable whele, the ea ‘of my imagining must mage nd make pao ite architectonic of the world be radically restructured by a tly new factor into Ths new fees meant Fenced image ting sine forth neta ln tm ot le eer sd AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [31] For, from within myself, there is only my own inner affrma- tion of myself, which fam Unable co project upon my outward ex: pressedness (a8 detached from my inner sell-sensation), and that is why it confronts me as axiologically empty, lacking any af- firmed foundation. Something like 2 transparent sereen has to be inserted between my inner self-sensation (the function of my empty seeing) and my outwardly expressed image: the sereen of the other's possible emotional-volitional reaction to my outward ‘manifestation—his possible enthusiasm, love, astonishment, or ‘compassion for me. And looking through this screen of the other's soul {which is thus reduced to a means) I vivify my exterior and sake it part of the plastic and pictorial worl. This possible beater of the others axiological reaction to me should not become a determinate human being, for, if that were to happen, he would immediately exclude my outward image from the field of my representation and assume its place: I would see him wich his outwardly expressed reaction to me, when I ‘would already be in my normal position on the boundaries ofthe field of vision, and, in addition, he would asa participant with a definite role, introduce an element of a particular story into my dream, whereas what is really needed is an author who does not himself participate inthe imagined event. “The pont tissue heres pecsly hawt accomplish he task of translating myself from inner language into the language of ‘outward expressedness and of weaving all of myself totally into the unitary plastic and pictorial fabric of life as a human being among other human beings, as a hero among other heroes. One can easly substitute for this task another task which is entirely diferent in kind, namely, the task accomplished by discursive ‘thought: thinking has no dificuley a all in placing me on one and the same plane with all other human beings, for in the act of thinking first of all abstract myself from that unique place which as this unique human being—occupy in being; consequently, I abstract myself from the concretely intuited uniqueness of the world as well. Hence, discursive thought is unfamiliar with the ethical and aesthetic difficulties of self-objctification, Ethical and aesthetic objectification requires a powerful point appui outside itself, it requites some genuine source of real strength out of which I would be capable of seeing myself as another. Indeed, when we contemplate our own exterior—as a living ex[ya] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY es otneent en bngFynchlck Sny tarde apy eig Wasco ee Soe imoen ncenel sep sha named hot iscromshing siesta hal be cat th hp pero set one oe se interac mtb pen rch ce one needle ee inom anwoalc ase Rnegnve econo say stone asters wiheacete oh ons om edn ut sole erie coe one ‘inns mt Sunday a oe Pt pa | Ney cence ny tbe laskingat yn ‘i Bt ri a eminence ti br unicaun whch mreanniet ean mean ot ene nfoare seth etn cr nent nanan elt ear i ma cg na ‘GpBare form Indeed, ou postion before a artor i always samme AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [33] {try to find an axiological position in relation co ourselves, in this ase, 100, we try to vivify ourselves and give form to ourselves— ‘out of the other. Whence that distinctive and unnatural expres: sion of our face which we see on it in the mirror, but which we never have in our lived life. This expression of our face as re flected in a mirror is made up of several expressions whose emo- tional and volitional directedness derives from entirely different planes: (r] the expressions of our actual emotional and volitional attitude which we ate actualizing ata given moment and which fare justified within the unitary and unique context of our life; {a] the expressions of the evaluation on the part of the possible ‘other, expressions of the fictitious soul without a place of its ‘own, and|3) the expressions of our wn relationship tothatevalua- tion on the part of the possible other, such as satisfaction or ds satisfaction, being pleased or displeased. For our own relationship {our exterior does not, afterall, have an immediately aesthetic, ‘character it pertains only to its possible efect on others—namely, ‘on the immediate observers, That is, we evaluate our exterior not for ourselves, but for others through others. Finally, these three kinds of expression may also be joined by an expression which we ‘would like to see on our own face—agaia, of course, not for our selves, but for the other. For we almost invariably attitudinize a bit before a mirror, giving ourselves one expression or another that we deem to be essential or desirable Al these different expressions contend with one another and ‘an enter into a random symbiosis on our face as reflected in a Imirror. In any case, what is expressed here is not a unitary and ‘unique soul—a second participant is implicated in the event of self-contemplation, a fictitious other, a nonauthoritative and un founded author. 1am not alone when I look at myself in the mi tor: I am possessed by someone else's soul, More than that. At times, this other soul may gain body to the point where it attains certain self-sufficiency. Vexation and a certain resentment, with ‘which our dissatisfaction about our own exterior may combine, sive body to this other—the possible author of our own exterior Distrust of him, hatred, a desire to annihilate him become pos: sible. In erying to fight against another’ potential, comprehen: sively formative evaluation, I consolidate it to the point of giving it self-subsistence, almost tothe point where it becomes a person localized in being Topunfy the expression ofthe reflected face wsprecisely the fist[34] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY task o be accomplished by an artist working on his self-portrait. And this task i achieved only by his authoritative and essentially necessary author itis the authorartistas such overcoming the uustas person. Ie seems to me, however that a sell porate can always be distinguished from a portrait bythe peculiarly ghostly character ofthe face: the face does not, at were include within itself the full human being, does not encompass al of hin en tocly. For me, there is something cere about the foreverLaughing face of Rembrande in his slf-portat”or the strangely alienated face of Vubel Its much more dificult to provide an integral image of one's ‘own exterior in the autobiographical hero ofa verbal compos tion, where one’ exterior is involved in the many-sided move: ment of fabul ad must cover the whole human being Lam not ware of any finished ells ofthis kind ina major work of art ‘There ar however, numerous partial attempts, uch ae Pushkn’s portrait of himeli 3s a boy" Tolstoy's Itehev as well 33 his Levin Dostoevsky’s man from the underground, and others. In verbal creation, completeness of outward appearance in purely Pictorial terms does not exist and, infact, not posable, for ie interwoven here with various other features of ¢ whole human being these features willbe anlyacd belo} ‘A photograph of oneself alo provides no more than material for collation, and once again we do not see ourselves here we see ‘only our own reflection without am author ‘y i flects the expression of a ficti re ts pone one he fects the expression of fictitious other, ie, iis purer then the lection ina mir nevethlesy, is fo cial sels itis lortitos,aialy te ceived and doesnot express our esentiel emarional sed oh ‘i eae he enting of bang ea ey we al compltely incapable of being incorporated tee the une ‘of my life experience, et 7 ciples for i oltny lle experience, because tte tc no panei he ne ur port, when punted by an ars who is au us ean enily deren mater In ths case whee thane In this ease, what { have is in appearance must compass, ‘must consummate the whole and volitional cognitive-ethie, ‘must contain within itself, and ‘of my soul—my unitary emotional al stance in the world. For me, out AUTHOR AND HEROIN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [35] ward appearance fulfills this function only inthe other: lam inea- Pable of feeling myself in my own exterior, of feeling myself en ‘compassed and expressed by it, since my emotional and volitional reactions attach to objects and do not contract into an outwardly Finished image of myself. My exterior is incapable of becoming for me a constituent in a characterization of myself. In the cate- sory of I. my exterior is incapable of being experienced asa value that encompasses and consummates me. Its only in the category of the other that its thus experienced, and Ihave to subsume my- self under this category of the other in order to be able to see ‘myself as a constituent in the unitary pictorial-plastic external world ‘Outward appearance must not be taken in isolation when con- sidered in relation to verbal works of art A certain incomplete- ness of the purely pictorial portrait is compensated here by a seties of features which are directly associated with outward ap- pearance, but are only barely accessible or completely inacces- sible to visual art: deportment, gait, vocal timbre, changing facial ‘expression; the changing expression of outward appearance a8 a whole at various historical moments of a human being’s life the ‘expression of irreversible moments ofthe event of life in the his- torical sequence of s human being’ progress; features of his grad- ual growth as it passes through outwardly expressed ages; images of youth, maturity, old age in their plastic pictorial continuity. In other words, all chose features that could be subsumed under the expression “the history ofthe outer man.” or seli-consciousness, this integral image is dispersed in life and enters the field of seeing the external world only in the form of fortuitous fragments. And what is lacking, moreover, is pre- cisely external unity and continuity, a human being experiencing life in the category of his own 1 is incapable of gathering himself by himself into an outward whole that would be even relatively finished. The point here is not the deficiency of material provided by outer vision although the deficiency isin fact considerable), the point, rather, isthe absence in principle of any unitary axio- logical approach from within a human being himself to his own ‘outward expressedness in being. No mirror, photograph, special selt-observation will help here. At best, we might get an aestheti- ‘ally spurious product, created for one's own selfish purposes from the position of a possible ather who lacks any standing of his own, inthis sense, one can speak of a human being’ absolute needLi6]_ AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY forthe the, forthe other seeing. remember cing remembering, gathering, and unin slactvity te only slaty cope of podcing outwardly nshed pesonay Ths outward personality could ot exis the other did not erate i aestheti memory Is po dacive~ic ies th forthe fie time, tothe outa hoon tring on anew plan of being 3. [Outward Boundaries of the Body| Senet sinners ita th cr ny jeremiah Iu ape nwlcniceeee ees ther is given to me ents mates, rely enclosed ina world that is external ited onall sides in tne, wthouc ene rhea eelngn Sy way te bundy te ol unity. ng its visible, tangible plastic-pictonal AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [37] regards actual perception, no special demonstration is required: I am situated on the frontier of the horizon of my seeing, the vis- ‘ble world is disposed before me. By turning my head in all diree- tions. I ean succeed in secing all of myself from all sides of the surrounding space in the center of which Lam situated, but I shal never be able to see myself as actually surrounded by this space. ‘As regards mental representation, the situation is somewhat ‘more complicated. We have already seen that, even though I do not ordinarily represent to myself an image of myself, I could do it with a cereain amount of ellort In such 2 case, | could represent it to myself as delimited from al sides, of course, much as I see the other, This represented image, however, lacks any inner co gency, for Ido not stop experiencing myself from within myself, and this seléexperiencing remains with me or, rather, I myself re ‘main in it and do not introduce it into the mentally represented image of myself. The consciousness that this is all of me, that outside of this totaly delimited object 1 do not exist—this con- sciousness can never be convineing within myself, since a neces ‘sary coeificient of any perception and of any mental representa- tion of my outward expressedness in being is consciousness of the fact that this is not all of me, While my mental representation of another human being corresponds quite adequately to the full ress of my actual seeing of him, my sel/-representation is con- tnived and does not correspond to any actual perception. The most essential pare of my actual experience of myself is excluded from outward seeing. ‘This difference in the experiencing of myself and the experienc ing of the other is overcome by cognition, of, rather, cognition 18 nnores this difference, ust as it ignores the uniqueness ofthe cog: nizing subiectum. In the unitary world of cognition, leannot find 4 place for myself as a unique Ifor-myself in distinction to all ‘other human beings without exception—past, present, and fu: ture—as others for me. On the contrary | know that Lam just as limited a human being as all others, and that any other human being experiences himself essentially from within biraself and is ‘not embodied for himself in his own outward expressedness. Such cognition, however, does not provide those conditions which enable an actual seeing and experiencing of the once-occurrent concrete world of a once-occurrent subiectum. The correlation of the image-categories of J and the other is the form in which an actual human being is concretely experienced, this form of the J[iS] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY the orm in whic experience myself as the one-and-nly mei tially diferent rom the fon of he our Un which Teper face all ether human beings without exception, And the other persons i alo experienced by mein» manner which is com Pll diferent rom the manne in whic experience my own ithe other persons isso subsumed unde te category othe ed ‘as a constituent feature of him, ee This radial dterence ss of eset significance not only fr sesh, bat also fr ethics shook sie to real the in quality n principle between the fan the oer with rape to tale i Chistian ethics one must no love ones ne must love the other, one must not be inulgent toward once, oe fst be indulgent toward the oer and in gener, we mst re lieve the other of any burdens and take them upon ourselves = Or conser eis, which evaluates he othe happiness and ones own happiness in completely diferent waye A setts ethical solipsism, we shall have to come back to- it bow. fe Whatsessential for the estheti standin the elowing: amor myths subcetum of any selractity what lesng hearing. cooching, thinking feeling and forth ey lvedetperenes star out rom within mel an Lam freee lorwad ahead of mse upon the word, upon an obec, Ths ob fst ands over agua me myself ay subicctu, he pit here ject correlation the pies the oneanl-only subietum, and yet not ony of my cognition and my volition and feling The ater hu: tirely in the object and his J is only an ber mysell, ean some extent fe ater sens, and thu ender myself ingadiclng-that ean make my Buta this act of selfobjectiation 1 !mysli—Yormysef shal continue © Iter stop sabe the living correlation of in 7 Therese wal oon ot es as Manteingeua nce Sherine Tan Concrete lived experience of our subjec: ‘he impossibility of its—of out-being exhausurely AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [39], present in an abject in contest to the abject status of any other hhuman being, Cognition introduces a certain rectification her, according to which even I myselt—the unigue, the one-and-only human being—am not an absolute [for myself or an epistemo logical subiectum: everything that cnables me tobe myself, that renders me a determinate human being, 38 opposed to all other hhuman beings (a determinate place and time, a determinate des. tiny, and so forth, isan object of cognition 3s wel, rather than a Subieeturm of cognition (ef. Rickert)” Nevertheless, what makes {ealism intuitively convincing the experience Ihave of myself, snd not the experience I have of the other human being (the latter tends rather to make realism and materialism intuitively con ‘incing}.Soipsisn, which places the entire world within my eon- Sciouaness, may be intuitively convincing or at any rate under- Standable. But it would be intuitively quite incomprehensible to place the entire world jinchuding myself) in the consciousness of ‘other human being who is 80 manifestly himself a mere par tile of the macrocosm. eeu Tes impossible for me to experience convincingly all of myse as enclosed within an externally delimited, ctlly visible and tangible object, that is, to experience myself as coinciding with it Inevery respect. Yet that s the ony way in which I can represent the other to yset, Everything inward tat I now and in pat co- taperience in him 1 put into the outward image ofthe other a3 into vessel which contains his his will his cognition. For me, the other is gathered and fited sa whole into his outward image, ‘My own consciousness, on the other hand, experience as encom passing the world, as embracing it, rather than as Bted into it lindeeipherable|. n other words, the outward image of a human being can be experienced as consummating and exhausting the other, bat Ido not experience a8 consummating and exhausting myself Th avoid misunderstanding etme rss once ore hat eae not dealing here with moments of cognition, uch as the relation Ship of by and soul, consciousness and matter, idealism and re- alism, and other problems associated with these moments. Our concern here is only concrete hved experience, i purely aes- "This point was thoroughly understood and assimilated inthe aesthetics (of Romanticism ef. Selegl’ theory of irony)"Wyo] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY thetic convincingness. We could say that idealism is intuitively onvineing fom the standpoint of selkenperience, whereas rom {he andi of my expres fhe ther human being mate Malis is intuitively convincing omitting ny consideration here ‘the philosophical, cognitive justification of these orientation The line as a boundary ofthe body is axilogially equate for termining and consummating the other—moreove, al of the othr, all of his constituent featutes-but it utterly inade. {Reforming and conmuiating me for mys, esse exverence myself essentially by encompassing any boundaries, any ly gxteing yall bond any bounds, My sc ciousness destroys the plastic convincnghens that any image of i ight have 7 Se follows fram al hiss thatonly the other human bei tl other human beings prince by me as connaura with the ous world apd ines an be woven into that wold and rendered concordant with itn am aesthetically convincing manner, Man-asnatute ie cape eed in an intuitively convincing manner only inthe ether oe let along the line of my ipherable ofthe world through which ean sa experience of myself in the act [inde II always have a loophole," a5 it were, "ve myself from being no more than a natu ‘alpen The oer [indecipherable word i neipherabl| is intmately associated with the Tepe lam intimately associated withmy mney went cee ed THAR: When I possess myst in all mp cere ae coe sa myself that has the character of an whncces seen ewe Io oe yey ml a begin to witha ysl a whale come 2 ofthis thinking sing and Geheg' Tonos Suacetithr in any extemal sate of le iene of thaustively, for mysel, am loested “Ee, remenes of ou expressed, a Tinka ysl Timp aya aero tay nen. ‘inking about myel, of how tee AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [41] on the tangent, a wer, to any given state of alli. Everything sn yell hat i spatially given graviates toward my own non ‘Data inner center, wheres everything thats del inthe other favtates toward his givenness in space. The sntnctvens with which I Sncely epee the ather sharply poses the aesthetic problem of how to provide 4 pul intensive justification fora given delimited inte, with ut exceeding the bounds of given external, spatial-sensuous world. tis only in elation tote other that one experiences im. Iedlatly the nsfcene af cognitive comprehension swell as the insufclency of ethical usifcation which occurs purely in terms of meaning and is indent to the concrete uniguenes of fn image, For both cognitive comprehension ang ethical ust Beaton bypass the constituent feature of outward expresenes, hich is ao essential in my experiencing ofthe other, and nes: Senta within myslt. My aesthetic sell-actvity! contains within self syereialy theseed tt were of erestve pase images and find expression dna numberof reversible acuons that issue fom within myst and alfrm the other axiologally in respect to those Features which constiquc his outward consummatednes: such actions, for example as embracing, Kissing o “overshadowing” him. he podctvnese and evry of hse ation a ticularly evident in my living experience of them. a these ations Tetualiz in an intutably convincing manner the pave of say position outsde the other, andthe axologicalbouidess of theother becomes tanpbly eli thiscontext Afterall tisonly ‘he other who canbe tenbrace, clasped ll round, only the oer Boundaries that can all be touched apd felt lovingly. The orher® trail finiteness, consusimatedness,hishere-and-now be lingual ae inwardly rasped by me and shaped, a were by my Cobracey in this act the ours outward existence Degin INE ‘natnew manne, acquire some sort of new meaning bora. Ona new plane of beng. Only the other’ ips canbe touched without Svan only on the ether Can we lay cu hans, rise ace above the ther and “overall, "overshadow" him "Aesthetic self activity no at maiessitslf nthe special activity of an authorarust, but aesthetic seltacuvity in my onceoecurtent ite where is sil nternallyunxiferentated ard not disengaged from aoa aesthetic elementslaa] AUTHOR AND HeRO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY in every constituent feature of his existence, “overshadow” his Body and within is body his sou am incpble leaping ny ofthese stone in reatn to myselt Not just because ofthe physical impossibility of doin ‘0, but, rather, because of the emotional-volitional untruth ie volved in turning these ats upon tysell Asan objet of these sew of embracing. kissing, “overshadowing” the others outward Selimited existence akeson te character ofan sxilogiealy re sient and heavy, inwardly weighty, material for shaping and sculpting the given human being™not sa physialy closed and physialy delimited space, but a am aesthetically closed aa de luted spacey. lvng space that ha the character of an es Ieshoulde evident, of couse, that we are abstracting hee fom the sevua features, which loud the aesthetic purty ofthese ine vetsible actions. We take these actions a artical symbolic lve fe ection tothe whale of« human being, wher nome bracing or “overshadowing his bly we also embrace "ove shadow" the woul enclosed in and expressed by that sa 4- [Outward Actions] We now turn our attention to a actions or external deeds that tal ‘questions to be examined action and consciousness? ‘On what plane We noted earl hid featore—s human beings ke place in the spatial worl. The lamin inthis ton atthe How a Space experienced inthe action performers sll How is the action ofthe ther expetence by me! tay Lmast alate my oxen en salsratonot ye Whe ah ontrol of one of out limbs ns hae beg ow if i id nr bog oe Suamble- ths limb a ‘lshough in the externally nuitabe image ol my boy ens ty my own, to the language of my inter result ofan llness, we lose AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC AcTIVITY [43] doubly pat ofthe whole of mysel. Any frpment of my body fiven from outside must be experienced ot “lived through” by me from within myscll, and ie W only through this experiencing from-within that it can be rendered part of myself, prt of my nce cceurent unity. And if on the other hand, this eansltion into the language of my inner sensations of myself fas to sue: ced, Iam quite prepared to eect a given fragment a8 not mine, $5 not pat of my body, and ie intimate aeociation with me is iroken off This purely internal experiencing of the body and its Tbe i expetally important tthe moment of performing ane tion which afterall invariably establishes a connection between Iyvelt and another external objet. invariably expands the sphere of my physical influence By way of inuospective observation, itcan cay be ascertained that I focus on my outward expessednes leat of all when pe foming physical ation, Stictl speaking ack, yraspan jet to with my hand a an catrally complete image or con igus tion rather, I grasp ie with my internally experienced museular Feeling cosponding omy hand, An what rasp i tthe ob ieee as an externally complete image, bat rather my acl expe nce coresponding to the object, ad my muscular feeling othe jet’ retstance is heaviness compactness andsoforth, What isaeen merely corapements whats inernll experienced ads of scondary significance in the actualization ofan action. And, in genera, all that which is given, present-on-hand,alteady real: Sel sd alee, such note Back he 2etion-prforming consciousness. This consciousness i ect towards gol and the piven couse followed sn performing the 3¢- tion as wll ss the means of achieving the goal ae both exper enced irom within. Te path followed petting an action 2 Purely internal one, andthe continuity of thie path is inernal Well (Bergson) Suppose tha | perform a cern movement with my hand—t take this book rom the shell for example. Tuo not olow the ex ternal movement of my hand the visible course i taveres the position it asumes during its movement in elation tothe vt fxs, fc sey consis ey !nthe fon of fortutous bts and pcs that ate of Wry te mo Bent forthe ation, ii from within myself Ut T eon and fide my hand Or for example, when I walk along the street, Lam internallyI44] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY ected forward calelat and evaluat al of my movements in temally In doings, ofcourse, I may occasionally need to see some things as datney as posible at times even within my set But tis ater seeing during the performance ofan action Io always onesided. Tati, what I percive in an object in such outer seeing isonly that which immediately relevant toa given action; ares, sucha way of seeing destroys the object ull esa an intitable given. What is present-om hand, given, deter ‘ined inthe visual image or configuration of an abject located in the acs of action is eroded snd decomposed during the perfor ‘mance ofan atom by whats yet trbe, whet is sul i the ature, what itll being actualized i elation tothe given objec by my ‘ction: sean object from the standpoint ofa fture inner ese ‘nes and this isa standpoint whichis most unjust in eas f0 the extemally completed character ofan objec, Ths, to pursue ur ealier example, when I was walking slong the see and su denly saw a perion walking toward me rom the opposite diet ‘ion, I quickly shifted to the right to avoid colliding with hin, what was inthe foreground for me in my seeing of that person ety vas ance all would hav ex rm within mysef-and my internally directed) shit tothe rh followed dict frm hig nn Sesto ‘An objet locitedin the ars of intense extemal ation i expe ‘eves now as posible impediment, resure, or possible pain ae now 32 possible support for my and, my foo, and so 08 ‘Adal this, moreover i experienced inthe language of my inner sensation, iis this that breaks up the act av an externally GomPeted given, Ths, nner sensation o set remains the foun ation he poe wold of acton~during intense extras tion: disalves within itself o subordinates to asl very thats extemally expressed, andi doesnot allow anything ext ‘al ocomplet itself in a ‘agomblcte selma siable inutable ive ether with Focusing on one’s own extetior is cvenen oes O48 exter in performing an aeton may ree thatdestoys the ation, Thos, whe gnc hs to prormadifcult and sky pny, isentcmcly dt ‘fllow the movement ones ann ices col “Ths aston sel, moron IY inner sensation of mypl, * SeOMMse im the Tanguake of AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [45] lect onctlf from within and a clculate one's own mavemnts— again fom within. The fs sue aby sport lok drely ahead fot yourself, not at yourself. During a dificult and dangerous ac- ton, Leona and concentrate allo ysl othe porn of e- coming pute ianer unity, stop seing and hearing anything ex femal, {reduce all of myself and my worl to pure seltzensation, ‘The external image ot configuration ofan action and is exter nal, intitale relation to the objects of the outside world ae never given to the performer ofthe ation himsel, an they do tmupe into the action performing consciousness, they inevitably {ti int eubs or "dead points” aeton ‘Action experienced from within the acton-perforing eon- sciousness negites in principle the axolgial independence of Anything given already on hand sesiable, completed destroys the present ofthe objec for the sake ofits futore—~ utoe antic patel rom within The word of action a word hein ticipated future The prospective goal of an ation Breaks UP the presently given makeup ofthe external wld af objet, the plan of future atualization breaks up the body ofan objects Present state. The anticipation ofa future setalzation perme cs the entire horizon of the acton-performing consciousness dnd dissolves ts tbility. Te follows from this that the artistic ruth ofan expressed and externally apprehended action, ts organic wovenness into the utr fare of what exists around ts harmonious comelated ‘ess with the background asthe totality ofthe present stable world of objets} al this is tranagredient in principle to the eon- SGlousnes of the person performing the ation allthis is acts alized only bya consciousness situated outside such a person, by S consclosnes that akes no part nthe action with respec tits Purpose and mean Only the others action s capable of being artistically under stood and formed by me, wheres from within myself my own 2ction does not yield in principle to iste forming and eon Suramation, What we mean here is, of couse action in a purely blastieperorial sense “The base plastic pictorial characterization of an external ac Sion such a epithet, metaphors simile, and oon] are never a ‘ualzed in the action performers consciousness, nor dothey ever coincide with the inne ruth ofa action—ats th n respec (0 Purpose and meaning. All artistic characterization transpose the[46] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY the pupa and mesng oe scuon boas eat ae trata io proraanes tones seer ea ee they uke eect sur fhe ee stedounie peer a cae Tone ther fan the ln nal haters of an scton ar pesenon hand ie the soreness ne Siounes, thea hs actin inanly ake amas a Peng svt of ts pupae ek seay a a Rabe, newaen nl proctncsew st hare bn te tole to more ply ordegente a ee ‘al ne nel das uly any aes ae ction ings nthe pati pciral image a ton ae lel in leady deel er eer Imig cotext tha tant setae Spec atc ot son an ee schev~the eae nt ncaa ena and rcaning ofthe action’ tht we expect nothing rea the oe ial hope fr mahing ine ea ne, is always | oe i artistic terms. An action that has been Bien aris orm expences ae Snes rec of my once-occuren i ee ‘my Ongoing life, no action ever presents itself to me in terms of weg oe A Scena ches mie meal the rel an hl ea a plore eniey onthe plan oes ee eee there is no access to the living and still risk-fraught Aiea f the late itr consummation ofan ction nctanerien in pci se ada ingin their ineuctabe necfulnans so nea mea oni cnsummated sparta pees, An ane Rather the objec world ofthe ation would be involved in out ‘Saerttorming consciousness (as experienced feoms with), and it enoressedness would thus be dosoved AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [47] point where they cease to be the sole forces that impel my self activity, and that is possible and internally justified only in rela tion to the other's action, where my own horizon complements and consummates the action-performing horizon of the other—a horizon disintegrated by the prospective, compellingly needful purpose. 5. [The Inner and the Outer Body| We have delineated the distinctive character of experiencing (s}outward appearance, a} the ouward boundaries of the body and (3) outward physical action, both in relation to oneself (in tne’ self-conseiousness| and in relation to another human being ‘Wemust now synthesize these three abstractly isolated moments inthe single axiological whole ofthe human body. That is, we have to pose the problem ofthe body as constituting a value Te shouldbe clear, of course, that insofar a the problem relates specially (o value, is definitely demareated from the view Pint of natural science--from the biological problem of the ‘anism, fom the psycho-physiologial problem of relations be tween the boil and the psyehological, and from related prob- lems in the philosophy of nature, The problem of the body 28 value can be located only on the ctical plane, onthe aesthetic plane, and to some extent onthe seligous plane ‘What s extremely important for ou problem isthe unique place which the body as value occupies inthe unique concrete workin ‘elation tothe subiectumn My own boy i, ats very foundation, an inne body, while the other’ body isa ts very foundation, a outward buy “The inner body—my body as a moment in my self-conscious ness~represents the sum total of inner organic sensations, needs, and desites that are unified around an inner eenter, The outward ‘spect as we saw is fragmentary and fails to attain independence snlcompletnenAndsince amas san ner quan longs—through the mediation ofthat equvalent—to my inet unt cannot fat to my own ovary an unedited vay’ all ofthe immediate emotionalvolitonal tones that are 38 {tate or me with my by relat os er tates and os ilies, such as suffering, pleasure, passion, Jaifiation, and 50 forth. One may love anes own boy one may fel a sort tender[48] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY nes toward it ut eis means only one thing: the constant striv- ing and desiring of those purely internal states and experiences weichaeatuzed trough ny ty, onthe one hand and the love of one's own body, onthe other, have essentially nothing in common withthe love of another human being’ individual ext nor. The ease of Narlsus interesting precisely insofar assis an exception chat characterizes and clarifies the rule Imay wish toe loved I may visualize and anticipate the other’ love but | ¢annot love myself ap I love the other, in an unmediated way, ‘That is, Imay be slicivous for myself and I maybe equally solic tous for someone | love, but this does not justify the conclusion that my emotional-volitona relationship to myself and tothe ‘thers similar in kind—~or, in other words, that love myself the way love the othe. For the emotionsl-volitional tones that lea im both eats tothe same actions of slicitue are rial di- similar. cannot love my fllow being as mysel or, rather, {cam not ove mela fellow being Allan dois ante toh al of those ations which usually perform for my own sake. law and lawlike morality cannot extend the application of theirrequiement tothe inner motional volitional reaction Al they require ae certain external ations that one performs i el ion to oneself and that must be performed for de rake of the fiber. But its out of the question to transpose one’s inner [aio logial) slfxelatonship othe other For the point at ssuci the «ysation ofa completely new emotional volitional catonship 0 the other as other—the relationship which we call “love” and hich we are quite incapable of experiencing in relation to our selves, My suring. my feat fr mel my jy are profounly diferent from my compassion or suifering with the other reoic Spe th the other, and fearing forthe ather~whence the der nce in principle in the way these felings ae ethically quali The epat acts as if he loved mmsel, but in teaiy he expe ‘Te nothing that resembles love or tenderness fs hime the Point is pecsely eat he any esthetic clement ren eilue of my external personality asa whole (and, fist and ‘Siemost the value of my external boy which soe oxeusive ‘Soncem tn the present context] has a borrowed character ISAUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [49] ‘constructed by me, but is not experienced by me in any unmedi- ated way. 1 can strive in an unmediated way for self-preservation and well-being, defend my life with all the means at my disposal, and even strive for power and the subjection of others, but I can never experience within myself in any unmediated way that which con stitutes me as a legal person, because my legal personality is, nothing else but my guatanteed certainty in being granted recog nition by other people—a certainty that Lexperience as their obl ation in relation to myself. For it is one thing to defend one’s ‘own life in fact against an attack in fact—animals actin exactly the same way in this case. Iis an entirely different thing to expe rence one’s right to life and safety and the obligation of others to respect this right, ‘And, similarly, there is an equally profound difference between ‘my inner experience of my own body and the recognition of its ‘outer value by other people—my right to the loving acceptance or recognition of my exterior by others: this recognition or accep tance descends upon me from others like a gift, like grace, which is incapable of being understood and founded from within mysel ‘And itis only in this ease that certainty inthe outer value of my. body is possible, whereas an immediately intuitable experience of that value is impossible-—all I ean dois have pretensions to it ‘The plastic value of my outer body has been as it were sculpted for me by the manifoled acts of other people in relation to me, acts performed intermittently throughout my life: acts of concern forme, acs f lve ats that recognize oy value. facta oon sa human being begins to experience himselt from within, he at ‘once meets with acts of recognition and love that come to him from outside—from his mother, from others who are close to him. The child receives all initial determinations of himself and ‘of his body from his mother’s lips and from the lips of those who ¢ close to him. It is from theit ips, in the emotional-volitional tones oftheir love, thatthe child hears and begins to acknowledge his own proper name and the names of all the features pertaining tohis body and to his inner states and experiences. The words of loving human being ae the fist and the most authontative words about him; they are the words that for the first time determine his personality from outside, the words that come to meet his it inct inner sensation of himself, giving ita form and a name in[sol AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY whch forthe fist tne, he nds Himself and becomes aware of Rimsl aa something Won of oveud ete genuine concern Come to meet the ark chaos of my nner sensation ef nel they name dessa and eonneet twit he ode word !Switharcsponse ht isimerestedinmeandinmy need. ed as 4 result they give pli form, a6 wee ot boundless, "arly sting chao" of ncds an stations, wher the fate dja ofthe cds personality an the outside world onfenting ik sil scene and disled ‘What hls to disclose tht dyad are te loving words and e- Sons ofthe hls mother itis tm er emotional vlna ones thatthe chi personaly x demaraed and upulesd ieh herlove that his fist movement is is osu in the worl, forme The child ein sec hime or he se ea throgh his mothers eyes and bein to speak aut hse his mothers emionsoitonal tones~heeness uel, oo iter, with his fst ered seltexression Thuy he use ale, Sonatdiminutve ems inthe pronation of wie in le fing himelfandcelinb othicowntendy= ny oe tote" "my Ile hea “go mghegne” sage eh he decerines himself an iste iseae sug hes inhis mothers love for him, ss object of his mothers chee ing testo, her hse, i hs mother’ loving embraces that "Bem hi slg. om with hme ¢2ymeauonbythelovngother ahumanbeingeauldbave seve Serun to pea about inset in nich afeconste dance forms an nuh afectioate diminutive tones oy stony, thee fms and toes would not express propery hese os ‘ona-eltional one af my aetenpencnce my mis iat laonshipomysl and they woul be aethcclly unter, te: what xeric wn mya motte es 2 “ang ile ead” ltle ad be ee ead” and my “hand”—t ack with my chan” se es sng Sele hand i only in elation tote eee ar Tea speak stot mysl in an aflectonateiminuive tan ss So ess the other acta lationship towand mere Se |i he would show toward mes nate OE eaionshin lindecipherable| { feel an absolute need for love that only the othe is capable ol intemal atulng fom hs ar ge blue ouside of me, To be sre, ths nec eh na a suflency fom within mys, dacs mo erate AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [51] tively from outside. tn relation to myself, am profoundly cold, even inthe at of elt preservation This love that shapes s human being irom outside throughout his ife—his mothers love and the love of others around him — this love ives body to his inner body, an, eventhough it does not provide him with an ineiable image of hs inner bodys outer “alue, i does make him the possessor ofthat bodys potential Yalue—a value capable of being actualized only by another hu an bein "The other's body isan outer body, and its valu is actualized by ‘me ineitionally an is given co me immediatly. The outer body 'suniied and shaped by cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic estego- sand by the num ra onc vial entangle es that make up the plastic and pictorial value init My emotions) vollona estion tothe other’ outer body ate unedited and itis ony in relation tothe othe that | eperence the beauty of the human body in an immediate way—that i, the human body teins tive for me onan entirely diferent aiological pane, on 2m axiologial plane inaccessible fo my inner self-ensaton and ty Irgmencary outer seeing. Only the others embodied for me aiologially and aesthetically. In this resect, the body is not Something self sufficient it needs the other, needs his recogni {ton and his formaiving activity. Only the inne boy fhe body experienced as heavy] is siven to human being himsel, the other’ outer boy isnot given ut set as a task: must actively Proiuce ie ‘quite distinctive approach to the other’ body is the sexual anproach, By itself, its incapable of developing forming las- ferpictoial energies, ie, itis incapable of ving form t0 the body a a determinate external entity that ished and sell Contained In the sexual approach, theater's outer body dsite fates and becomes merely a constituent in my own ime body Or in other words it becomes valuable only in connection with ‘hove intaconporeal posible possiblities canal dese, sleasure gratiReaton} which t promises me, and these inet pos bles submerge and dissolve is resilient outward complete ess In the sexual approach to theater's dy, ty own body and the other's merge ino one leh, but this unitary flesh canbe only an ner sh, To be sure, tis merging into one fier lsh ah kimate lime toward which my seal atitude tends ints par- est form, im reality, itis always complicated by aesthetic mo[sa] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY iments that derive from my loving admiration of the other's ody, and, consequently, by forgiving, constructive energies as well In this case, however, the formation of aesthetic value through hese ens only mean and doesnt stain autonomy so Such, then, is the diferencehetween the outer and the ner body (between the others bay and my own) within the concrete a ocd cnt nie prson fo nom hee tionship of" and the other” is absolutely iecwerible and ven once and forall Y increible and Let us now turn our attention tothe religious-thical as well x the aesthetic problem ofthe value of the human body from the ‘Sandpoint of ts history, and let us try to elanfy that story in ters ofthe distinction we have established. [The Value of the Human Body in History| Inall ofthe histori cally significant, fully developed, a lete Catt storilly sigan fly developed and compl esthetic conceptions of the body, the bol 18 ‘ually represented in generalized and internally undiferent axed way. Yet, at the same time, there isan inevitable pepo. etanes in any given case now oftheir, now of the outer body ofthe subjective, now ofthe objective point of view, the i ‘GhGxPerience from which the “idea of man’”™ arises is founded Bung selFexperence or inthe experience of the other human Im the frst case, i wll be the ani in ft case, the axiological category of the 1 {which so encompasses the other that provides the foundation, eames ss lb the eazy of the her hich asses meas well: none case the proen of contracting io wet fan an alc] may be exeed in the allow BF 27 an is Imysel as I myself experience mysel and th AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [53] the axiologically determinant moment, both of cours, are part oie whole of human being should be evident that, when the category ofthe other as a determining significance in constructing the “ie of man,” then Sh sesthet¢ and postive valuation ofthe body wil predominate: tman 1s embodied and is pasteslly and pictorial sigfican The inner body merely atjons the outer body: i reflects the Value the ter body and is consecrated bythe outer Body Such mas the cater of man nang a th ne of ts flowering Everything corporeal was consecrated by the category tthe other apd was experienced as snmething immediatly Yate She and signficane, Inner axolopical seldeterminaion as Suoinated to being determined externally though the ober fn or the other the for myself was dissolved in the For the other = The inner body was experienced as bloga valu. (The fiatgial valu of te healthy bodys an empty and dependent Yalu a value incapable of enfendering snything creatively pro Ghctive and culturally significant out of sll Tecan only reflect Sale of another king, mainly acsthetc vale, in tel is “pre- “ultra Epistemologcalrefiection snd pure idealism were ab Sen Fun, Zielinski" The sexual element was Dy no means predominant, fri is inimical co pasty. twas only withthe Sppearance cf bacehantes"™ that a dierent cute essentially Grtental in character began to emerge. th the Dionysian cult, an inner but no solitary “lvingout” ofthe Body tt flee poe dominates, Sexuality grows stronger Plastic bounds begin to dis solve. The plastically consummated human being—the other— Submerged infacclevs yor unified inracorporel lived experience But the Lorsmyself does mot yet separate and oppose itself t0 thers as an essentially diferent eategry of expenencing 4H tan being, a yet only te gourd is being pcpatd for that sep: ‘ation, But the bounfanes are no longer consecrated and ate Beginning to be expenenced as oppressive (the anguish of in ‘uation The snrord has ost ny aucontaive outward fom, Trt has nc yet found a "orm forte spinor” inthe ste Sense does aot apply here, fortis no fonger aesthetic: the spictis ‘ot sometung pve, but something presen ntl as a ask to be accomplished, Epicuranism cccupies a distinctively mediating position in this history In Epreueanism, the body has become an organs itis am inner body "a sum otal of needs and satisfactions) bi[ss] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY Tia snc sec Theo Scaeceen ht ee ci ye che horn en Jovelessness of Stoicism,*» eee eeepc Te se ‘other is replaced by the self-reflection of the I- ‘for-myself in cos- een ene ea the one thinking; the one divides into two, a new person is ere: ioe ea dyad of I-for- myself and J-as-I-appear- for, irom orca ewe epee capable of becoming smpe ance, mercifulness, loving adm We—namely, tenderness, forbear which cold be summed up inthe one won “kinases Fr hi he relaconship wo nese impossible to understand a iness as a principle of comportment toward SGcthing piven, because kindness constitutes domain of that 's or given but imposed purely as task, and, theretoe AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC AcTIVITY [55] anything already given, anything alteady on hand, is surmounted Something unvorthy or depraed, mnelading ll hose reactions sich structure and consecrate sien, A ceaseless ping beyond Gneselion the boi of sellelection J Existence consecrate self ‘eleively through the inceitable penitence ofthe body ‘Neoplatonism is the pares andthe most consistently prose cated auological comprehension of man and the wort on the fais of pure seifexperence the universe, God, other people—all, bie no more han For mysell. Thi own agent about then Selves i the most competent andthe Binal judgment. The other fas no vie here. As forthe fat that they ae also an HYorthe Other its fortuitovs and unessental and engenders no valuation ‘hat is new in principle Hence, Neolatonism also includes the most consistent dent ofthe boy forme myselt my body canaot bea value Purely ele ‘ental sel esrstin is nape of engendering 0) vale ‘uc of tel In preserving mse, do not evaluate myself tel peservationsaecomplshot csi ay valuation andi featon, An organism simply Lives, without any justification from sch tse fr the grace of yustifieation can descend upon {only fom outside. L mysell cannot be the author of my own. ‘alu ust a6 cannot ft myself by my own bai. The bolic Me of an organism becomes value only in another sympathy ani compassion with that ie motherhood, It isthe other's sym Bathy and compassion that inte Biologia ie into a new falue-context: With respect to value, my awn hunger and che Hunger of another are profoundly diferent. in myself desire is Simply desiring "wanting” whereas in the oer desire is Ste forme, ete Where the possi nd json of sn valuation which is ipossble and unjustified in elation to one Sel is nc admited in felation tthe otber, and where the other 2 such has no privileges, the body a the bearer of bodily fe for the subiecrum himself mast categorically denied that, where the ther docs at proce any new point of view) i From the stant of our problem, Chvstanty resents te asta complex and eterogeneus phenomenon” 1 took no 8 composition the following hetcrogencous constituents. ate igh ditneiveconseration by odatsm finer human bod ness~olbouly nede--on the busi of collective experience of the body with the eaepory ofthe other predominating, OMe pet eivedonesel in the eatory of the other Ethical seltexpenence[se] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY 28 an organism, The sexual moment of toner boy unison fate tenet ae Seek au cng ed Fgelme himself ss the one assuming the burden of sin and eX ion—and Hence, in all of Chis AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [57] lution of Christianity, (1) Neoplatonic tendencies assume the foremost position: the other is first and foremost -for-myself and the flesh isin itself an evil-—both in myself and in the other. (2) Both principles of axiological relationship find expression in, all their distinctiveness—the relationship to oneself as well as the relationship to the other. OF course, neither of these trends, exists in a form that is pure. Rather, they represent two abstract tendencies, and in any given concrete phenomenon only one of ‘them may predominate Teas the second trend that enabled and gave rise to the idea of transfiguration of the body in God as the transfiguration of that which isthe other for God. The church as the body of Christ," the bride of Christ." ef, the commentaries of St. Berard of Clair: ‘vaux on the Song of Songs." Finally, the idea of grace as the be- stowal—from outside—of lovingly merciful acceptance and justi- fication of the given, as of that which is in principle sinful and, therefore, cannot be surmounted from within itsell. This includes the associated idea of confession (total and utter penitence) and absolution. From within my own penitence, there is negation of the whole of myself, from outside myself [God is the other), there 4s loving mercy and restoration. In himself, a human being can only repent, and only the other can give absolution ‘This second tendency within Christianity finds its deepest ex pression in the phenomenon that is St. Francis of Assisi, Giotto, and Dante.""' In his conversation with Saint Bernard in Paradise, Dante suggests that our body shall be resurrected not for its own sake, but for the sake of those who love us—those who knew and loved our one-and-only countenance. ‘The “rehabilication ofthe flesh” inthe Renaissance has a mixed and confused character. The purity and depth of St.Francis’, Giot- to's, and Dante's acceptance of the body was lost, while the naive acceptance that had been characteristic of antiquity could not be restored. The body sought but could not find an authoritative au- thor in whose name an artist might create. Hence the body's sol tariness in the Renaissance "Nevertheless, in the most noteworthy phenomena ofthis epoch Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo} the St, Francis~Giotto—Dante current does break through, alehough not in its former purity. On. the other hand, the sheer technique of representation achieved & very high degree of development, even if toften lacked a pure and[s8] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY authoritative bearer. The naive acceptance of the body character- {stie of antiquity* could not be restored afterall the inward expe- ‘pence accumulated in the Middle Ages; one could not help but, read and understand St. Augustine along with the Classical au thors [ef Boccaccio, Petrarch)* Furthermore, the disintegrative sexual element was quite strong, and the Epicurean art of dying had gained greater influence as well. ‘The individualist Ego in the “idea of man” in the Renaissance. Only the soul can detach and isolate itself, but not the body. The ‘idea of glory: parastical assimilation of the nonauthoritative other In the following two centuries, the position of authoritative “outsidedness"® with respect to the body was definitly lost. In the Enlightenment, the body degenerates at the end into an orga hsm as the sum total of the needs of "natural man,” ‘The “idea of man’ continued to grow and gain in richness, but it did so in ways different from those that are of concern t0 us. Positive science reduced the Iand the other definitively to a com- ‘mon denominator, Political philesophy. Rehabilitation of sexual ity in Romanticism.* The legal idea of man: man-as-the-othe.” This in brie, is the history of the body inthe “idea of man,” pre- send here ints most general eulncs an, there, mee ‘in an incomplete form. i 7 “Ny However, the “idea of man” as such is always monistic. It al- vaysstrves to overcome the dualism ofthe lathe ee, cven ifn dings it advances one of thee categorie fusdanrenal, A xtc of such 2 generalized “ea of man” a eiqae of the {tent o which this monisic overcoming is legitantes caeote the bounds of our subject. We shall ls have to leave open the uestion of whether it ip posble or mean an oppose to all ater human bys, pst, present, and ftate—to aber! al rom my unique place in being in order understand the world “sma he bay was at dot fom the boll unity ofthe ot wollte bribe sitemap ef oe ‘adnotyet sce el fiom oen and man had pea aed te fare slaonshipo himself which en imple go dente Malthe maonty of cae, not an overcoming tall be spy an ‘ignoring of the fundamental diference in ethteal' ‘cance between the J and the other. ee nee AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [59] fully as an ongoing event and in order to orient myself in the world asim an open and once-occurrent event. THE INNER AND THE OUTER BODY IN SELF-EXPERIENCE] “There is one thing that, indubitably, has essential significance for Us here: the actual, concrete axilogeal experiencing of another human being within the closed whole of my own unigue he, ‘within che actual horison ofmy own life, has twofold character Tecause and the others we move on dierent planes of seeing fd evaluating Inet absuat, but actus, conerete evaluating fain ener te Uanspose us toa single onified plane, Immust take {stand axiologiclly outside my own ie and preeve myself a, Sn odher among othess. This operation is easily accomplished by Sotrace hough when [subsume myself ander a norm that 1 Share with the oter in morality tn law] of Under a eammon cog ave aw (a physiolgial psycholgia, socal lw, ete. But ths abc operation la noe om he anette and 0 logically intuitable experience of myself as another—it is fa ‘moved fom seing my own conrete life and myself, the ero of that life om a par with other people nd theives, on one andthe Same plane with them. Such seeing presupposes an authorative EMiolopeal position outside mysell fr se only in a lie per eived inthe cateory ofthe othe that my body can become se ‘heticall validevand notin the contex ay own fea ved for inyel that ino in the context of my slF-conscousnes. I howeter an authitatve postion for such conte ao log seeing ecivng melts another—i ben then setron=my hegre comet el vi my selFconsciousness and a tetun into myself occurs, return for dhe purpose of seit exploting my beng forbes for my oven sake In ths ease, the election of myelin the ote, that which am for the he, become a double of mysell. Tht double irupe into my self-consciousnes, clouds its put deflects my self consciousness from is dct axiloical el- Uonship to all. Fear of the double “un ho has ronson odcamig abut himsll in concrete terma-'a man who stnves to visualize the external 12g of himvel, who ts morbidly sensitive about the outward impression be preducts and yes inceate abou that impression 2nd caily wound in his pde-—such 4 man Tses the rope,[60] AUTHOR AND HEROIN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY Purely inner tance in relation this own bay. He hecomes awk ar, “unwieldy an doesnot know what o with his hans and fet This Osis because an internat other nts un his movements and gers as second principle ofa logical comportment rowardhisel ase for hin: the conten of ts secon nes byte context he pers Consciousness of him, and his ianct boy Is eanionted by se outer boy thats divorced rom him--an cuter exter aya & Bay ving in che “oundestand this dference between th cen the significance of boi value in expenencing, myself and in expenencing the stes 1 ‘us ty tocroke an mage of my whole life that woul bes all Soneree as possible and would be entselypormesred be a Ioreoer,withow any intention ‘i Sac mot communisting ts image of 2 eo the ther of ening forte other Tey own ie as ecteted in my imagination wil fled thf ‘shed and indi mags af eter pope nal es ne ny le completeness with images of veers who sc cace and dear to me, and even with images Sea mand ages of people I have only met in ‘experiencings of purely innet strvings, that pervade this in hall recall my own inner atti ‘of my life, but not my own Saooines, angio eer dee tuted world of other Thats Ta {des in prs crcunees gueetimae Alf che plat and peal he eae ine, mags, gets, pono, ans asd eel be dete between the ober ord sade ey ysl alerts worl a an one is enclosed by hs outer bal fe ‘uhor ands aesthetically cnsoiated or bene Ae AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [61] ters axiological reaction. Every aspect of this outer body (the body enclosing the inner body) performs, as n aesthetic phenome- ‘on, a double function: an “expressive” function and an “impres- sive" function And to these corresponds a twofold active pos tion orattieude assumed by the author and by the contemplator. 6, The “Expressive” and “Impressive” Functions of the Outer Body as an Aesthetic Phenomenon [EXPRESSIVE AESTHETICS] In the aesthetics ofthe second hal ofthe nineteenth century and the beginning ofthe wentieth, one theory exerted a partcularly eowerklinfluence and was probably sore fully worked ou than ny other Thave in mind hee the theory which conceives ae thede activity a8 “emmpathizing” or “eovexpenicneing"* In the prcsen context, we are not inerested inthe varieties ofthis, theory, ft onlin ies most base ies and that, moreover, ins ‘most general form, The ide is this: an object of aesthete activity (works ofa, phenomena of nature an of ie] expresses a certain Inner state and aestheti cognition of sch an objets the ct of oeaperiencing that iner state For or purposes, moreover, the Aierence etwcen “ao-exprincing” and "empathizing” 8 00¢ ‘material for wen we empathize or “infec” ovr own inner state into an object, we sll experience tis state nt as immediately ur own, but a's stat of contemplating the obec, Le, we 0 ‘perience with the obec *Coveapeiencing” gives clearer expression tothe actual sense of the lived experience (phenomenology of lived experienc), Whereas “empathizing” seeks to explain the psychological Rene Sol islvd epee An set ey, wees mete itdepenent of specifically peychologieal theories excep fo 5) suage a8 language. Language 3 language i someting he Su ‘mounts, fr language must cease tobe perecived as anguags 9 linguist detrminatcnes its morphological, symtaci, Hexic AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [195] logical determinateness, ete, and must be petceivable only ins far as it becomes a means of artistic expression. (Words must cease to be palpable as words} It is notin the world of language that the poet creates; language is something he merely uses. In relation to material, the artists task (based inthe fundamental ar tistic task) could be described as the surmounting of material This surmounting, however, is positive in character and does not tend at all toward illusion, What is surmounted in the material {sits extra-aesthetic determination: marble must cea to persist as marble, ie, as a particular physical phenomenon, it must sive plastic expression to the forms of the body, but without :nany way producing an illusion of the body, for everything pays- ical in the material is surmounted precisely as that which is physical. ‘Do we have to fel the words in a work of art precisely as words, ice, in respect to their inguistic determinateness? That is, do we have to feel the morphological form as specifically morphologi- cal, the syntactic form as syntactic, the semantic order as seman- Luc! OF course, the work must also be studied as a verbal whole, and this lies within the linguists competency. But this verbal ‘hole, by the very fact that i is perceived as verbal, is not the artistic whole, The surmounting of language, however, a8 a sut- ‘mounting of physical material is completely immanent in charac- teri s surmounted not by way of negation, but by way of imma- nent perfecting ina pricular, required direction. [Language per se 4s axiologically indifferent: itis always a servant itis never a goal, it serves cognition, at, practical communication, etc People who have studied science for the frst time may naively assume that the world of creative activity as well consists of scien: tifically abstract elements: ittwens out that we have been speaking. {in prose al the time without even suspecting it. Naive positivism assumes that what we have to do with in the world—that i, in the event of the world, since afterall, we live and act and create in it—is matter, psyche, mathematical numbers, and that these have a bearing on the meaning and purpose of our acts and are ca- pable of explaining our aets, our creative activity, precisely as acts and as creative activity (ef. the example concerning Socrates in Plato), Meanwhile, the only thing these concepts explain is the material of the world, the technical apparatus of the event of the ‘world. This material of the world is immanently surmounted by[194] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY cour acts and our creative activity At the present time, naive postvism has spilled over into the man seiences a well the halve conception of what constates scientific knowledge What needs tobe understood, however, isnot the technical apparatus but the inmanent logic of creative activity, and what needs to be understood fist ofall s the valve-and-meaning structure in ‘hich creative aetivity comes to pass and in which it gains an Sloe waren ct, the coment which ce det eration becomes meaninghl ‘he authoranin create eenclounes is never coincident with language consciousness: language-consciousnes sno more than a consticueng, material thats totally govermed by the purely artistic task: Whit may have represented to mysel x8 ‘ay 26 «course to follow inthe world, turn out tobe merely a semantic series ofcourse, the latter hs is place a well, ut the Question is what place exactly Ie constitutes a semantic sexes Cutie the Bounds of the artiste task, outside te bounds of 3 vworkof art—otherwse, we would have to claim tha semantics 8 fot and cannot be» department of linguists in any conception of linguistic science so longa sa seeneeof language To com pose a semantic dietonary acordng to subjects dacs not Yet ‘ean at all that we have come into the presence o relive 2 ‘The fundamental problem sto determine fst of al the artistic task and it actual conten, Le, that axoloicl word in which the atte as set and sctushzed (Of what does the word in which we ive, act, and create com si Of mater and pach Ad of what dos de work fat Hs? OF words, sentences, chapters, and pethaps of pages ad fanet Inthe ans alot context of active exeaton all *hese constituents ae secondary, and by no means primary. 8 aot these constituents that anologically determine the artist Creative content, bu, rather, they are themlves determined by shaven This atmo dey teeta of sui these constituents, but ony to inicae the Place apvopmiate £0 $uch tay ina el understanding eeative activity a create secinty Thus the authors creative consciousness is not a language consciousness fin the broadest sense of the word, languat® consciousness is merely a passive constituent im eteaive act ityanimmanenty surmounted mater AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [195] 43. The Substitution of the Material-Literary Context for the Author's Axiological Context We have established, then, that the artist's relationship to words as words sa secondary, derivative moment, which depends on his primary relationship to context, ic, to the immediate givenness ‘ofa lived life and the world of that lie the cognicive-ethical ten- sion of that ife|. One could say that the artist fashions the world ‘by means of words, and to this end words mut be immanently sur ‘mounted as words and must become an expression ofthe world of ‘others and ofthe author's relationship to that world. Verbal style (the authors relationship to language and the methods of operat- ing with language as determined by that relationship sa reflec tion in the given nature of the material of the authors artistic style (of his relationship toa life and the world ofthat life, and of the method of shaping a human being and his world as deter ‘mined by that relationship). Artistic style works not with words, ‘but with constiquent features of the world, with the values of the ‘world and of life; it could be defined as the sum total of the de ‘ces for giving form to and consummating a human being and his ‘world, And its this style that also determines the relationship to the given material |words), whose nature we must know, of course, inorder to be able to understand that relationship. The artist's re-, lationship to an object isan immediate relationship to it s a con- stituent of the event of the world, and itis this that thereupon determines (not in the sense of chronological order, ofcourse, but in that of an axiological hierarchy] his relationship 0 the object- referring signification of words as constituents of a purely verbal context—that is, determines the utilization of phonetic features {the acoustic imagel, emotional features, pictorial features, and "The substitution of material for content for even the mere ten- dency toward such a substitution} annihilates the artistic task by reducing it to @ secondary and wholly dependent constituent— Emotion itself relates axiologially to an object, i rected pon an ob ject, and not upon a wotd, even ifthe object s not xiven apart from the won196] aurHoR awp HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY the relationship to wads (in doing 4, however, the primary con stituent—the telationship to the workdis always. added, af ourse, even ifn an uncial form for without this adiion there would simply be nothing to oe} ‘What is also possible, however, is 4 substitution in which the autor tual lal inet diplaced nt by he vet content (the linguistically eoneived language context), Dut by the Ierary contexte verbal art contextthat 0 ay, DY language that hasbeen already fashioned forthe purposes of some Psimary artistic task we have to grant, ofcourse, that somewhere fa the absolute past there owas «primary act of ereation that dl not proceed ina trary contexe, since th inter dd not exist et ‘Acconting to this conception, the authors att of exeation 8 accomplished totally within the purely itera valuc-context without in any respect exceeding its bounds) and in Tend ‘eaningul inal of ts constituents solely by that content: 1 bom (with respect to value) in ehis conten, fs consummated in this context and dis inthis context What the author fn ie Hy langage and tray lorme—the wold of teat an ohingelse—and it isin hs iterary world that is inspiration = born, i his creative impulse to produce new form-combinations within that iterary world, without in any way exceeding bounds In his creative activity, the author overcomes the purely ‘Mera resistance of old purely iter, orm, paces and ts ditions {tha the author actually does thisis unquestionable), with out everencounteringa diferent kindof esistnce the cogaiive ethical resistance of the hero and his world), And he dees this moreover, inorder to produce anew htrary combination out Purely literary elements, The reader, in hs cur, mus al “tel” the author’ act of creation soley against the background of th usual literary manner, Le, he, oo, must not oxceed the bounds of the valueand.meaning conten of iterate matenlly conceived. In reality, che authors creative valuean-meaning context the content chat renders the work he produces meaning does No {its tre that there may be works which were conceived, norture, and bom in the purely literary world, but these works are very rately dis used, in view of thet complete artistic mit although personally. ‘would not venture to assert categorically that such works ate possible AUTHOR AND HEROIN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [197] inthe least coincide with the purely terary context (moreover, a ‘materially conceived literary context). The later, along with is values, enters, of course, a8 a constituent part inte the former ‘context, exeepe that here itis not a determining but an entitely determined context. The creative act also has to determine itself in the materiabliterary context, has to assume an axiological position in that context as well, and, undoubtedly, an essential fone. But this position is determined by the moze fundamental position of the author in the event of being, in the values of the World. The author's axiological position is established first and foremost in relation to the hero and his world [the world of his life), and it is this artistic position of the author that also deter ‘mines his material-literary position (One could say that the forms ofan artistic vision and consum. ‘ation of the world determine the external literary devices, and rot vice versa, that the architectonic of the artistie world deter- ‘mines the composition of a work (the order, the disposition, the Cconeatenation, and the consummation of verbal masses), and not vice versa, The author is compelled to contend with old or with ‘more recent literary forms, compelled to overcome their resis tance or to find support in them, yer what underlies this moves ‘ment isthe most essential, the determining, the primary artistic Ccontention—che contention with the cognitive-ethical directed ness of a life and its valid persistence a8 a distinct life. This is ‘where the act of creation (for which everything else isbuc a means] attains the point of highest tension, where every artist attains the point of highest tension in his creative ativiy, if he is signif ‘cantly and seriously a primary artist, hati, ifhe isan artist who collides and contends immediately with the raw cognitiveethical clement ofa lived lf, with the chaos of a lived lf element and ‘chaos from the aesthetic standpoint), and itis only this collision that ignites the purely artistic spark. Every artist in every one of, his works is each time compelled to conquer artistically [inde cipherable, is compelled again and again to justify, and justily es sentially, the aesthetic standpoint as such. An author enters into immediate contact with the hero and his world, and ic is only. through this unmediated axiological relationship to the hero that the author determines his own position as artistic; itis only through this axiological relationship co the hero that the formal literary devices forthe fest time acquire thei validity, meaning,[198] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY and axiological weight (prove to be necessary and important a5 events and that the movement of an event is also introduced ito the matenal literary sphere. CE the context constituted by Per ‘dics the struggle among periodicals the le of periodical, and the theory of periodicals |= Nota single complex of concrete, material-titerary (formal) de- vices and ail the more so, 3 complex of linguisti, verbal ele- zments, such as words sentences, verbal symbols, semantic sries, and the like) can be understood as style and composition solely from the standpoint of a narowly aesthete, literary system of regularities or laws [whichis always reflected, secondary, derive tive in character}—except fr the deliberate artiste experiment ‘That is, it cannot be understood solely from the author and his purely aesthetic energy (ths also applies to lyric and music), Dut necessarily requires that we also take into eeount the meaning governed sequence of ie, the meaning governed cognitive-thical autonomy af the hero if, the meaning governed laws or eB laste of his ac performing consciousness for everything thats aesthetically valid encompasses not avid, but the persistent ard selfregulated aesthetically inexplicable) dcetedness t0 mea ingon the part ofan ace performing life ‘Awork doesnot break down into a numberof purely aesthetic compositional constituents joined according to purely aesthetic compositional laws (and even less into linguist constituents into verbal symbols with an emotional “nimbus” tht are joined according tothe laws of vebalsymboltc association). On the com teary, an atstic whole represents the overcoming [essential ver coming) ofa certain necessary whole of meaning the whole of 4 possible life that possesses validity for lived life nthe aristic whole, we have to do with two powers and with two interdepen™ dent systems of laws established by those powers every consti ot in the arse whole determined tn terms of two vale systems, and in every constituent these two systems ae ina state of intense and essential axiological teraction they are te WO ated powers that endow every constituent of the whole and the entire whole itself with the antologieal weight ofan event The artist never begins frm the very Outset purely as an artist, 4c, he cannot deal from the very outset with nothing but 48 thetic clements. The work of at is regulated by two systems of Jaws the hero andthe author the laws of content an the laws of form. Where the artist deal fom the very outset With AUTHOR AND HEROIN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [199], nothing but aesthetic quantities, the result is @ contrived and Empty work that doesnot overcome anything and nec, des tot produce anything that has extoloical weight A eo cannot te crated fom start to finish out of nothing but purely aesthetic elements 2 hero cannot be “made”: he would net be alive, and fone would nor Yee” his purely aesthetic validity. The author Cannot think up aero, devoid of any independent satus in rela tion vo the authors creative act tha fis him and ives hin a form. The authoraruist finds the hero as already given prior to and par rom hisown purely artistic act: he cannot engender the itera out of himself—such a hero would be unconvincing. (Of course, the hero we mean isthe posible her, that i, the ane that has not yet become a hero, hs not yet been shaped aes theticaly, forthe hero ofa work i already invested amare cally valid form, that i, we mean the givens ofa human being 4 another, Is ths givenness ofthe other that the author art fins prior vo his own artistic act*"and iis ony in elation otis fivenness that his at of aesthetic consummation scqies ako Topical weight. The authors arstic at encounters certain pe. sistent reslcny, impermeable reality which teanmotgnore and ‘which cannot totaly absorb ino itaell, tis this exta-aestbeuc reality ofthe hero that wall enter sa shaped realty into the work pouced. And its this reality ofthe hero-—the reality of another Eonsciousness—that constitutes the object of aesthetic sion ‘which imparts aesthetic objectivity to that vision. This reality of the hero snot the reality the actuality and possiblity, regardless of whether physical orpaychic| of natural scene, the reality con fronted by the authors fre creative imagination, but rather the inward reality of ife’s own directednest to values and meaning What we require from the author in this respect i axoogical ‘erisimiltude we require that his images or gues should have the antologieal weit of an event, We rege, that iy, NOt coe ove and empica patil ey, bt the eyo an eset {nota physically posible mowement, but a movement thats pos ble as an event this may be the event ofa life inthe sense of fxiologcal weightnes. even i iis imposible and improbable physically and psychologically (psychologically understood here In aecordance with ts method as a branch of natural science. Swe do not mean, of course, the hero prior givenness empirically—his heingon hand ina particular place and at a particular time[200] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY ‘That is the way we measure artistic verisimilitude, artistic ob- Jectivity {ic faithfulness 10 the artistic object—the cognitive: ethical directedness of a human being’ lived life: the verisimili- tude of plot, characte, situation, lyrical motif, and so forth. We ‘st be able to feel ina work the resistance ofthe reality of being ‘qua event, where this resistance is absent and where there is no ‘opening into the axiological event of a world, the given work is an excogitation and lacks any artistic convineingness ‘There can be, of course, no objective, universally valid, criteria for identifying aesthetic objectivity: this i inherently a matter of intuitive cogency alone. Behind the transgredient moments that Constitute artistic form and artistic consummation, we must viv idly feel the presence of that possible human consciousness t0 ‘which these moments are tansgredient and which they cherish and bring to consummation, besides our own creative ot C0 ‘creative consciousness, we must vividly feel another conscious ‘ness—the consciousness upon which our ereative self-activity is directed as upon an other consciousness. To feel this means t0 feel the form, to feel its saving power, its axiological weight—t0 fel its beauty. (I said “to fee,” for in feeling it, we da not neces: ‘tly hae tobe concious of iin a theoreti, cognitively ais tinct, manner: Form cannot be refered to oneself, for when we try to refer it 0 ‘ourselves we become other than what we were for ourselves, we cease to be ourselves, we cease to live from within ourselves: we Hecome pssesed And in any case the attempt todo so results in the destruction of the significance and axiological weight of form in all domains of at, except for certain kinds of lytic and ‘musi, When we attempt odo so, it becomes impossible to deepen. and expand artistic contemplation: the spuriousness of i i 13° tantly exposed, while perception hecomes passive and unsteady. ‘There arc two participants in the artistic event: one is passively teal, the other is active (the author/eontemplator|. The with- Arawal of one of the participants destroys the artistic event, and we are left with nothing but a misleading illusion of an artistic ‘event—with a counterfeit (an artistic deception of oneself): the artistic event is unreal, it has not really taken place. Antistic objectivity is artistic kindness, and kindness cannot be jobjectless, cannot have weight in a void: there must be an other who axtologically stands over against it, Certain kinds of att 32 «alled objeetless ornament, arabesque, music| and this is correct, AUTHOR AND HEROIN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [201] in the sense that there isno determinate internally differentiated and delimited) object-content in these arts. But they are not ob- jeetless in our sense, of course, there 1s an object in therm that im- parts aesthetic objectivity to them. In music, we can feel the re- sistance, the persistent presence of 2 possible consciousness, a lived-life consciousness, a consciousness incapable of being con- summated from within stself, and itis only insofar as we feel it that we perceive the power, the axiological weight of music, and that we perceive every new step it takes as an act of overcoming and a victory. In feeling this possible cognitive ethical tension or irectedness, which is incapable of being consummated from ‘within itself yet is mortal;* we also feel the great privilege qua event of being another, of being situated outside the bounds of another possible consciousness; we feel our own gift-bestowing, resolving, and consummating possibility, our own aesthetically actualized formal power, we create musical form not in an axio- logical void and not amidst other musical forms {music in the ‘midst of music}, but in the event of lived life. And it is only this that renders musical form serious, renders it valid and momen- tous qua event. [The arabesque of pure style: behind style we al- ‘ways feel a possible soul Thus, objectless art does have a content (ie, a possible lifes persistent tension or directedness ura event), but this content is not determined and internally differentiated as an object. “Thuis, in the world of forms alone, form has no validity or force. ‘The value-context in which a work of literature is actualized and in which it is rendered meaningful isnot just literary context. A ‘work of art must fel its way toward and find an axiological rel- ity, the reality of the hero as an event, (Psychology is an equally technical moment that lacks the character of an event. 4. Tradition and Style Style is the unity of two kinds of devices: the devices of giv {ng form to and consummating the hero and his world, and the “tn feeling, chat is this penitent end pettonaryinfnitude, this possi- bility ofan everlasting discontentedness, an essentially necessary atid rightul diseontentednes,[202] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY devices determined by the former, the devices of working and ‘daptngimmaneedy overcoming) the materia. Whats the ee Sonship that obtains between style and the sithor aan individ ality! What isthe relationshipafstyleto content, 1, co the wold of others thats being consummated? What signifiance docs dion have inthe value context ofthe authorconterplaton? ‘confident unity of style the great and power sels pos sible ony wher fe’ cognitive ethical tension or diestedness onstcutes a unity, where the task-torbe achieved that governs its dzecediness i incontestable. That isthe first condition, The Second condition consist inthe incontestablity and confidence ofthe position of being situated outside that lean the firmness ani incontestabiity ofthe place of art inthe whole of euleure. A foreuitous postion of outsideness cannot have any confidence in ‘tse, style cannot be foresitous, These two conditions ate int mately connected with cach other and mutually nerdependent “The great style encompasses all domains of art ort doesnot eis. at all Fortis stan foremost «syle of seeing the worl, 2 Gn after that—a style of working the maternal. It shoal be evident eh style exclades innovation in he crea tion of new content, resting asi does onthe sable unity of ie ognitivecthiclvaluecontext. Thus, Classicism does nat seek to produce new cogitiveethicl valves, a new drectedness of lived lfeas such bu, rather, it applies ll strength tothe mo- ‘ments constituting aesthetic consummation and to the manent deepening of if’ tational dreteiness from within tell. (The sol of content in Romanticism, dhe cnternporanciy of com tent in Realism) Tension and innovation inthe ereation of 2 tent are, in the majority of casey already a sgn of a ci in the domain of aesthetic eration fies ‘The ctiss of authorship the very place of atin the whole of culeut, nthe event of Beng ss ecvaated any traditional pace of ar appears tobe unjustified the artist something deters nate imposible wo be a art mpi t Become totally part of this limited sphere the points not ¢0 Mass others imart, but to surpass are itself, the immanent extra of “Ultimately, a8 we shall yee, a teigious confidence or faith i the fat that lf snot solitary, that it s inten and does not proceed fom within itself in an axologieal vod, AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY [203] given domain of culture are not accepted any longer, nor are the domains of culture as determinate cultural domains. Roman: tucism and its idea of integral or “total” creation and of “total” ‘man. One strives to act and create directly inthe unitary event of being as its sole participant, one is unable to humble oneself 10 the status ofa toile, unable to determine one’s oven place in the event of being through others, to place oneself on a par with others But the crisis of authorship may also take a different direction, ‘The very position ofthe author's outsideness is shaken and is no longer considered essential: ane contests the author’ right to be sinuated outside lived life and to consummate it Al stable wans- agedient forms begin to disintegrate [frst of all in prose—from Dostoevsky to Bely, the crisis of authorship is always of lesser significance in Iyric—Annensky,2" and 60 forth). Lived life be- comes intelligible and obtains the weight of an event only from Within itself, only where I live and experience it as an /, in the form of my relationship to myself in the value-categorics of my for-myself: to understand means to project myself into an abject and experience it from within, look at it with its own eyes, give ‘up my own situatedness outside its bounds as unessential. All ‘those forces which consolidate or give body to a life from outside are seen as unessential and fortuitous, and a deep distrust of any ‘outsideness develops jin religion ths is associated with the "m- ‘manentization’” of Gad, the “psychologization” of both God and religion, with the inability to understand the church as an out ‘ward instivution, and with the general reevaluation of everything, that is inward-from-within|. Lived life tends to recoil and hide deep inside itself, tends to withdraw into its own inner infinitude, is afraid of boundaries, strives to dissolve them, frit has no faith in the essentialness and kindness of the power that gives form from outside, any viewpoint from outside Is reused. And, in the process, the culture of boundaries |the necessary condition for a confident and deep style) becomes impossible, of course; bounda- ries are just what life has nothing to do with; al creative energies withdraw from the boundaries, eaving them to the mercy of fate. Aesthetic culeure is a culture of boundaries and hence presup- poses that life is enveloped by a warm atmosphere of deepest ‘aust A confident and founded act of constituting and shaping the ‘boundaries of man and his world (outer as well as inner bounds ries) presupposes the existence ofa firm and secure position out:[204] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY ‘side of him, presupposes a position in which the spirit can abide fora long time, can be master ofits own powers, and can act with ‘out constraint, It should be evidene that this presupposes an es sential axiological consolidatedness of che enveloping atmo- sphere. Where this axiologically “bodied” atmosphere is absent, where the position of outsideness is fortuitous and unstable, and where the living axiological understanding is totally immanent to 8 life experienced from within [practical-egoistc life, social life, ‘moral life, ete "—any axiologically prolonged and creative dwell: ing on the boundaries of man and his life s impossible, and the only thing one can do is to mimic or simulate a likeness to man and his life (that is, o utilize the transgredient moments in a segative way) ‘The negative utilization of transgredient constituents (of the “excess” of seeing, knowing, and valuation), which oceuts in sat- ie and in the comical (but notin humor, of course), depends (0 ‘considerable extent on the exceptional weight ofthe life that is, experienced axiologically from within [moral life, socal life, et) and on the lowered weight (or even complete devaluation} of the ‘xiological position of outsideness—on the loss, that is, of every~ thing that founded and strengthened the position of outsideness and, consequently, also on the loss of that exterior of life which exists outside the bounds of meaning. This exterior {the exterior Independent of meaning) becomes meaningless, ie, itis defined ‘negatively in relation to the nonaesthetically possible meaning and turns into an exposing or unmasking potency (wheteas in 4 Positive consummation this meaning-"exempted” exterior be- comes an aesthetically valued exterior). In life, the moment of {tansgredience is established and organized by a tradition (out- ward appearance, the exterior, manners of comportment, et; the ‘communal way of everyday life, etiquette, ete}, and the collapse of the tradition exposes their meaninglessness life breaks up all forms from within. The category of the ugly” 8 usized. I Ro ‘anticism, we observe an “oxymoronic” construction of images or figures: the contradiction between the inner and outer, be: tween social status and essence, between infinitude of content “That where life axiclogial weight s actually experienced only hen we put ourselves inside that life empathic ourselves ito 8 38 sume ts own point of view, experience st inthe atepory of the AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [205] and finitude of embodiment is forcefully accentuated. Thet ro place where one could put the exterior of man and his fe, and there is no founded position for providing it with a place. (Style as the unitary and finished picture of the world’s exterior: the con junction of exterior man—his costume, his deportment—with a Setting. A world view organizes and unifies the performed acts [and anything can be understood from within as a performed act), ‘timparts unity to life's act performing directedness to mean ing-—the unity ofa life’ answerability, the unity of is going be ‘yond itself, of surmounting itself. Style imparts unity 0 the ‘world’ transgzedient exterior, its reflection to the outside, its ad- vertedness to the outside, its boundaries [the shaping and combi ing of boundaries), A wold view organizes and unifies man’s hor 20n, style onganizes and unifies his environment.| A more detailed examination of the negative utilization of the transgredient or “excessive” moments in satire and in the comical [ridiculing by way of given being] and also of the distinctive position of humor, exceeds the bounds of our inquiry. But the crisis of authorship may also proceed in still nother direction: the position of outsideness may begin to incline toward the ethical position, and thus lose its purely aesthetic distine- tiveness. The interest in the pure phenomenality of lif, its pure “viewability’"—the interest, that is, inthe contented consum- ‘mation of it in the present and the past—begins to slacken, not the absolute future, but the proximate, social and even political future—the proximate morally imperative plan of the future— "undermines the stable boundaries of man and his world. The posi: tion of outsideness becomes excruciatingly ethical (the insulted and injured as such become the heroes for the act of secing— ‘which is no longer purely artistic, of course). There is no con: fident, calm, immovable, and rich position of ovtsideness. There is no inner axiological tranquillity required for such a position (thar i, there is no inwardly wise awareness of the mortality of ‘cognitive-ethical ditectedness, or its hopelessness—a hopeless ness mitigated by trust, or faith. By tanguillity, we do not mean the psychological notion of tranquillity (asa state of the psyche), ‘we do not mean simply a factually present tranquillity. We mean 4 tranquillity as a founded axiological posture of consciousness that constitutes a precondition for aesthetic creativity, tranquil: lity as an expression of trust, or faith, during the event of beings an answerable, calm tranquillity[206] AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY We must say a few words about the difference between aes: thetic outsideness and ethical outsideness {moral, social, poli cal, practical-life outsideness}. Aesthetic outsideness and the con sstuent of isolation, stuatedness outside being whence being assumes the character of pure phenomenality, liberation or re lease from the future. ‘Inner infinitude breaks into the open and finds no repose; life is intensely principled. Aestheticism, covering a void, isthe second site of crises. The hero is lost, a playing with purely aesthetic ele- ments. Stylization of a possible essential aesthetic directedness. ‘Outside the bounds of style, the creators individuality loses its ‘assurance and is perceived as irresponsible. Responsibility for in dividual creativity is possible only in a style, when this responsi- bility is founded and sustained by a tradition. ‘The crisis of life, in distinction to the crisis of authorship (al ‘though the former often accompanies the later), consists in pop ulating life with literary heroes, in life's falling away from its ab- solute future, in the transformation of life into a tragedy without chorus and without an author. ‘These, then, are the conditions for the author's participation in the event of being, for the strength and foundedness of his crea: {ive position. Ic is impossible to prove one's alibi in the event of being. Nothing answerable, serious, and significant can exist ‘where that alibi becomes a presupposition for ereation and utter ance. Special answerability is indispensable jin an autonomous domain of culture!—one cannot create directly in God's world. ‘This specialization of answerability, however, can be founded only ‘upon a deep trust in the highest level of authority that blesses @ ‘culeure—upon trust, thats, in the fact that there is another—the highest other—who answers for my own special answerabiity, ‘and trust in the fact that Ido not act in an axiological void. Out side this trust, only empty pretensions are possible. ‘The author's actual creative act (and, m point of fact, any per formed act} always proceeds along the boundaries (the axiological boundaries) ofthe aesthetic world, along the boundaries ofthe 1 ality ofthe given [the reality of the given is an aesthetic reality along the boundary ofthe body and the boundary ofthe soul; and it proceeds in the spirit. The sprit, however, does not exist yet: everything is yetto-be for the spirit, whereas everything that al: ready exists is, for the spirit, something that has already existed Al that remains to be done isto deal briefly with the problem AUTHOR AND HEROIN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY. [207] ofthe beer’ slationship othe author fe ately ouched tom his problem in the prcsing scetins) Te author tHortativeand indispensable forthe ear, whose elatonship to the authors nota elatonahipto hin aan individual a another human being, asa hero, a8 determinate entity in being, But father a elationship to him a «principle that ness tobe fl Towed [only the biographical approach to the author tras isn into s hero) nto a determina cxstent human beng. who can te contemplate “The author’ individuality 28 2 crestor i » erative individ uly ola special nonsesthet, ode, the ative dividual ity of seeing and forming ad not the individuality cat i een tnd formed, The author becomes an individuality proper oaly there we assign him the indvidal worl ofthe heroes that he Crested and shaped or where he is parallycbjecilled 82 fat, The suthor cannot and shit not assume fr us the deter Iinsencs of person, fore ten im, we ener int and adapt to his active sng eis only upon finishing artistic contempla ton, ne, only when the author no longer actively guides Our Sceingitis only then that we objectty our author guide sl tivity (our seleactivity is i sel acvity] in dhe form of acer thin person, in the frm ofan individualized countenance of the tutor, which weften pace nto the word of the heroes that he Greed, But this oti autho he suthor who has eased fo fea principe of seing and as become a objet that i seen) i Glite stipe from ee author 2 te hero of bogephy [a rather “principled form fim the sandpoine of schol iscipline ‘Te attrnpe co explain the deterninatenes of his cretion from theindvidulity eis “lace” explain ie creative slr actvy from his existence: insofar as dis posble. This determines the osicion snd method of ography av form of scholarship. "The author must ke understood st ofall rom the event of ‘work asa parcipant in that even and a a authontative guide forthe reader in that even, To understand the author inthe his torical world of his time, to understand his pace i a socal col lective, hi elase postion here we go ose the Bounds of 20 analysis ofthe event ofa work and eater the domatn of history a Purely historia study cannot but take ito aecoune ll ofthese mts The tlio erry ary exceeds hoo Por the reader the autho inside a wok isthe sum total of the208) AUTHOR AND HERO IN AESTHETIC ACTIVITY creative principles that have co be actualized; he is the unity of the transgredient moments of seeing that are actively referred to the hero and his world. The individuation of the author a a hu- ‘man being is no longer a primary buta secondary creative act pet- formed by the reader, the critic, the historian, independently of the author as an active principle of seeing—an act in which the author himeelt is rendered passive.