The Double Content Of Art

Download or read book The Double Content Of Art written by John Dilworth and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2004-12 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original work on aesthetics, philosopher John Dilworth offers an unusual theory of the nature of artworks. The Double Content (DC) view is the first comprehensive theory of art that is able to satisfactorily explain the nature of all kinds of artworks in a unified way -- whether paintings, novels, or musical and theatrical performances. Dilworth's basic thesis is that all such representational artworks involve two levels or kinds of representation: a first stage in which a concrete artifact represents an artwork, and a second stage in which that artwork in turn represents its subject matter. Thus Dilworth describes his approach as a double content (DC) theory, since arguably all content is the content of some representation or other. This fresh, even revolutionary, approach to art meets strong initial opposition from other current theories of art -- for example, those that treat paintings as physical objects, or novels and other works of fiction as "types" that have copies or performances as instances.