Keio University X Dignity Center

Since ancient Greek philosophy, “art” has constantly been discussed in close relationship with the concept of “nature,” in the context of which the mimetic function of art has naturally become the focus with the word’s etymology (i.e., “techne” in Greek and “ars” in Latin) deeply in mind. However, since the emergence of the modern age (particularly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries onwards), much critical attention has been paid to the more autonomous aspects of art, where art is now considered not merely as imitative of nature but also as something that is more imaginative and transformative, having the powerful potential to recreate and reconstruct the surrounding world.

This significant transition in the Western history of ideas coincided with, and was to a certain degree a result of, the growing public awareness of and reliance on the imaginative and creative power of humanity/humanism in modern democratic society, although it also necessitated (often in the name of civilization) domestication and, in some cases, even a distortion of such potentially revolutionary forces inherent in both literary and artistic activities. “The autonomy of art” has since played an essential part in our modern democratic society and its public sphere, simply because of its gradual separation from the unquestionable traditional authorities and its growing confidence (and later overconfidence) in its own privileged public role to criticize our unique modern social and political issues from then up until today, where we have often witnessed our civic virtues violated, our human rights discriminated against, and our dignity defaced on an unprecedented global scale.

By addressing and elucidating many of these current social and political issues in this divided age, this project principally aims at reevaluating and remapping the historical importance of “Art and Autonomy in the Public Sphere” from a literary, multilingual and cosmopolitan perspective.