The Aesthetics of Clarity and Confusion: Literature and Engagement since Nietzsche and the Naturalis

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: Literary Activism, Clarity and Confusion

I. Sartre and the Aesthetic of Clarity

II. Adorno and the Aesthetic of Confusion

III. The Use(lessness) of Literature and Language

Part I: Naturalists and Nietzscheans: Codifying Clarity and Confusion

Chapter 1: "For Love of Clarity": Émile Zola, Practice, and the Political Potential of Realistic Literature

I. "Tout voir, tout savoir": Seeing as Knowing

II. Content to Know

III. The Practical Uses of Clarity

Chapter 2: Grounds for Confusion: Nietzsche, Theory, and the Political Potential of Anti-Realism

I. "Das Problem der Wissenschaft": Against Knowing

II. "Clarity Bordering on Stupidity": The Form of Confusion

III. The Practical Uses of Confusion

Part II: Ambiguities of Activism: Complicating Clarity and Confusion

Chapter 3: Between Theory and Practice: Matthew Arnold, Thomas Mann, Julien Benda, and the Purpose of the Intellectual

I. "Apostle[s] of Political Detachment"?

II. Criticism between Clarity and Confusion

III. Criticism as Activism

IV. Between Theory and Practice, Still

Chapter 4: "Different Kinds of Clarity": Science, Sense, and Utilitarian Realism in Bertolt Brecht

I. Naturalist Brecht?

II. The Sense of Brecht

III. "The Truth is Concrete": Brecht's Materialism

IV. "That Brechtian Usefulness"

Chapter 5: Pressing Engagement: Jean-Paul Sartre and the Aesthetic Problem of the Political

I. Communication, Clarity, and Confusion

II. Forms of Engagement: Confusing Sartre

III. To Change the Subject: Narcissistic Activism

Chapter 6: An Other Engagement: Simone de Beauvoir and the Ethical Problem of the Political

I. The Problem of Engagement

II. The Aesthetics and Ethics of Engagement in The Mandarins

Conclusion: Contemporary Engagements with Clarity and Confusion

I. Peter Handke: From the Ivory Tower

II. Toni Morrison: "How to See without Pictures"

III. J.M Coetzee: "Surprising Involvement"

Works Cited