Beyond Imperial Aesthetics: Theories of Art and Politics in East Asia

Abstract:

This essay proposes to explore a transcultural meaning of “Enlightenment” through an encounter between Madhyamaka Buddhism and contemporary critiques of Kantianism inspired by Object-Oriented Ontology. The concept of “translation-as-Enlightenment” in relation to the affective multitude of existence is explained in relation to ideas about causality, compassion, translation, aesthetics, epistemology and politics.