Philosophy of Art: The Idea of a 'Religion of Art' in the 19th and 20th Century

In this course, we will explore an important theme in the philosophy of art and art-making of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially pronounced in German Romanticism, and going through the 20th century to certain key segments of artistic, literary, and musical modernism. An oft-expressed ambition is that art will somehow step in and fill the void left behind by waning religion. Central to our investigation of variations on this theme will be the underlying philosophical question of what it would be for art to take over for religion or to be a kind of secular religious substitute, and in what respects, if any, art might accomplish this.