Labors of Imagination. Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser

MIESZKOWSKI, Jan, Labors of Imagination. Aesthetics and Political Economy from Kant to Althusser, Fordham University Press, 2006, 236 p.

ISBN : 0823225879 

Challenging prevailing assumptions about the relationship between language and politics, this book offers a compelling new account of aesthetic and economic thought since the eighteenth century. Mieszkowski explores the doctrines of productivity and interest in Romanticism and classical political economy, arguing that the critical force of any historical model of literature depends on its understanding of the distinction between intellectual and material labor. This provocative contribution to contemporary debates about culture and ideology will be important for scholars of literature, history, and political theory.

Jan Mieszkowski is Associate Professor of German at Reed College. His most recent publications include essays on Derrida and Hegel, Benjamin, Kleist, and Joseph Beuys.