Trauma, tíseň, extáze, prázdnota - Formule afektu a patosu 1900-2018 – Kesner Ladislav (2019)

A richly illustrated publication dedicated to the transformations of "formulas of pathos," i.e., the emotional language of the human body as captured by visual art and culture over the last approximately one hundred and twenty years. The author originally develops the psychological theory of art and the model of art history of the significant German art and culture historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) and extends it into the present. Warburg's concept of "formulas of pathos" (Pathosformeln) becomes in his work an intersection where major themes of the humanities and social disciplines come to life and intersect, as well as sciences dealing with the human mind: questions of the mechanisms through which images affect their viewers, the mutual influence of biological and cultural aspects of bodily expression and emotional experience, the relationship between mental and material representations, or rationality and affect. They also refer to the ethical-political dimensions of these questions, which are as pressing today as they were during Warburg's lifetime and relate, for example, to the need to understand how human consciousness is manipulated by images. The book follows the exhibition of the same name organized by the West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen at the beginning of 2018.