Split Infinities: The Sublime, Aesthetics and Political Critique

In the history of aesthetics the sublime is described as a negative pleasure: one linked to power, the infinite, to terror, to transcendence, and an appreciation of that which exceeds our imaginative and conventional grasp. Historically, such pleasures were denied to women and to other culturally 'inferior' human types.
Engaging with recent developments - including the military language of 'shock and awe' and debates around '9/11'- this book explores the work of women writers and painters alongside modern philosophers of the sublime. Through a sustained dialogue with Kant and post-Kantian philosophers it argues for an aesthetic that respects embodied differences.