Unfinished Worlds

This book explores the far-reaching consequences of Gadamer's hermeneutical critique of aesthetics. Hans-Georg Gadamer's poetics completely overturns the European aesthetic tradition. By concentrating on how we experience the meaning of artworks, Gadamer's poetics has deep implications for how we can understand the meaning of poetry, art, literature, history and theology. This emphasis on participation promises an approach that will revolutionise how we appreciate and understand art, and gives us new ways to think about the value and productivity of the humanities. This is the first full-length study in English of Gadamer's aesthetics. It draws on a significant proportion of Gadamer's latter essays on art and aesthetics. It presents aesthetic attention as a form of practice.