Problems of style : foundations for a history of ornament
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Problems of style : foundations for a history of ornament
Princeton University Press, c1992
- Other Title
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Stilfragen
- Uniform Title
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Stilfragen
Available at 16 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Translation of: Stilfragen
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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ISBN 9780691040875
Description
Written at the height of the arts and crafts movement in fin-de-sicle Vienna, Alois Riegl's Stilfragen represented a turning point in defining art and understanding the sources of its inspiration. Demonstrating an uninterrupted continuity in the history of ornament from the ancient Egyptian through the Islamic period, Riegl argued that the creative urge manifests itself in both "great art" and the most humble artifact, and that change is an inherent part of style. This new translation, which renders Riegl's seminal work in contemporary, readable prose, allows for a fresh reexamination of his thought in light of current revisionist debate. His discovery of infinite variation in the restatement of several decorative motifs--the palmette, rosette, tendril--led Riegl to believe that art is completely independent from exterior conditions and is beyond individual volition. This thinking laid the groundwork for his famous concept of Kunstwollen, or artistic intention. "Something that the translation will, I hope, convey, is the passion invested in Riegl's enterprise. We are made to feel that the issues he discussed mattered vitally to him; it was the very nature of art and its relation to human life that were at stake, art as an absolute necessity."--From the preface by Henri Zerner
- Volume
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ISBN 9780807117064
Description
Chloride, New Mexico, is a dusty mining town slowly bleaching away in the sun, a casualty of the big copper firms' exodus to South America. To the dying place returns Roselle More - hometown girl and faded Hollywood star - for the premiere of her new film. The even is a cynical promotional gimmick, one that her director, Bill Brodkey, making a last-ditch attempt to affirm his own artistic integrity, hopes will also resurrect the actress' bottomed-out career. Naturally the citizens of Chloride hope the publicity will do the same for their town. But Roselle vanishes. A double assumes her place - and suddenly nothing is as it seems.
In this eerie, beautifully crafted novel, Gladys Swan presents an impressionistic palimpsest of myth and modern life, in which the present is revealed as only a play of light and shadow over a ghost dance that - tenuously - ensures the world's continued existence. Part history, part myth, part meditation on truth and illusion, the novel becomes a kaleidoscope of plots and subplots, each refracted through the perceptions - the voices - of a cast of characters as intriguing as the Southwest itself.
And as the town giddily whirls toward its rendezvous with truth, these characters find themselves precariously balanced between a lost past of blood-deep spirituality and an unknowable, terrifying future, between the world of drama and the drama of the world. Presiding over and in some mysterious way engineering this ultimate rendezvous is the oracular A.J. (""Bird"") Peacock, archetypal trickster, Oberon, Puck, Prospero to the town. Truth, Bird points out, is not always comforting.
The truth (or a truth) is finally revealed when the voices of the title - of the past, the land itself - speak during the novel's apocalyptic conclusion. There, in the wilderness, in a dazzling play within a play, the past comes face-to-face with the present, the spiritual with the profane. In this crowning union of memory and desire, this shoring-up of fragments against ruin, the discerning reader will hear echoes of writers as disparate as Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, and Joyce.
Never less than consummately entertaining, Ghost Dance: A Play of Voices works flawlessly on many levels at once. The demands of this remarkable novel are great, but so are its rewards.
by "Nielsen BookData"