Abstract:
This article presents a detailed account of the aesthetic subject’s deconstruction as developed by Jacques Derrida in his confrontation with Kant’s famous and influential Critique of judgment. At the same time, it places this enterprise in the context of Derrida’s corpus by making explicit the vast conceptual network that lies behind it (auto-affection, spectrality, crypt, trace, etc.). In the last analysis, what is here explored - following Derrida’s lead - is an understanding of aesthetical experience as subtraction, as a breach into the subjective field through the introduction of an irreducible non-presence.
Keywords:
Beauty; Auto-affection; Aesthetic subjectivity; Spectrality