The aesthetics of ruins /
Robert Ginsberg ; illlustrated by the author.
- xx, 538 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
- Value inquiry book series ; v. 159 .
- Value inquiry book series ; v. 159. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 449-452) and index.
Foreword / The ruin as matter -- The ruin as form -- The ruin as function -- The ruin as incongruity -- The ruin as site -- The ruin as symbol -- The ruin as aesthetic experience -- Visit to a ruin : St. Andrews -- Building with ruin -- Nature as ruin -- Sculpture and other visual arts as ruin -- Cinema and television as ruin -- Literature as ruin -- Philosophy as ruin -- The terminology of ruin -- Theories of ruin -- The ruining eye - and other senses -- Fragments of a chapter on ruin -- Meditations on humanity, self, and the world as ruins -- Chronology of ruin -- Bibliographical essay on the literature and imagery of ruin. Claire Richter Sherman -- 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. App.
"This book constructs a theory of ruins that celebrates their vitality and unity in aesthetic experience. Its argument draws upon over 100 illustrations prepared in 40 countries. Ruins flourish as matter, form, function, incongruity, site, and symbol. Ruin underlies cultural values in cinema, literature, and philosophy. Finally, ruin guides meditations upon our mortality and endangered world."--BOOK JACKET.