This dissertation examines and seeks to revitalize the concept of "distraction," through an analysis of the changes it underwent in German-speaking philosophy, critical theory, and literature between the World Wars. Defying the sociological and psychological norms of the period, Franz Kafka, Martin Heidegger, and Walter Benjamin refused to treat distraction...
Hegel's lectures on aesthetics bear witness not to the cessation of artistic activity as such, but to a progressive decline in its significance for human self-understanding. Still, the nature and extent of this decline remain contested. Is the creation of new art a vestigial activity in a world governed by...