KONSTENS STARKA VERKAN En studie av Freuds idéer om den estetiska erfarenheten i ”Michelangelos Mose”

Abstract

This thesis analyses Freud’s thoughts on the aesthetic experience through a close reading of his essay “The Moses of Michelangelo” (1914), an overview of his other works about art and literature as well as his historical and discursive context. The historical context is the turn of the century Vienna and Freud’s bi-ography, the discursive context contains Freud’s references to art historians and the contemporary art theories. The conclusion is that Freud’s idea of the aesthetic experience is an experience of the artist’s intention, which contains the artist’s unconscious and is transferred to the viewer through the content of the artwork. Freud’s aesthetic enjoyment is tied to wanting to understand the work of art, which differs from how he describes it in his other texts about art and literature. Freud’s aesthetics and view on art is representative for his time but the originality in his ideas lies in the role of the unconscious in art.