{"product_id":"9781906497620","title":"The Limits of Art: Two Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003eTzvetan Todorov, one of Europe’s leading intellectuals, explores the complex relations between art, politics, and ethics in the essays that make up \u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Art\u003c\/i\u003e. In one essay, “Artists and Dictators,” Todorov traces the intimate relationship between avant-garde art and radical politics in pre-revolutionary Russia, pre-fascist Italy, and pre-Nazi Germany. Todorov sets forth the radical idea that the project of totalitarian dictators and avant-garde artists actually “emerged from the same womb”: both artists and dictators set out to make it new—be it art or society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFurther troubling the role of art in the world at large, in “Art and Ethics” Todorov re-examines the age-old question of what can be expected from art and whether it should be emancipated from ethics. Must art be morally instructive, or should it be self-sufficient and concept-free? The answer is not an either\/or to Todorov, who believes, like Baudelaire, that art has both cognitive and ethical aspects to it—even if it is presented as art for art’s sake.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThroughout the essays in \u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Art\u003c\/i\u003e, Todorov insists on the essential need for artists to recognize, understand, and even love the world outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Todorov harbors no illusions about the mix of good and bad that enters into the fabric of all that is human. . . . He speaks throughout in his own voice, with rare breadth of sympathy and with a fine eye for the complexities of human experience.”—\u003ci\u003eNew Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Like the authors he focuses on, Todorov is tolerant, understanding and wise.”—\u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Seagull Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47060890288368,"sku":"9781906497620","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781906497620_p0.jpg?v=1763617433","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781906497620","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}