"Written by one of Italy's leading contemporary thinkers and available in English for the first time, this book surveys the key themes in Continental aesthetics"-- "Written by Mario Perniola, one of Italy's leading contemporary thinkers, and available in English for the first time, this is a new account of Continental aesthetic thought in the 20th Century. Surveying 100 years of writing on art, 20th Century Aesthetics explores five major themes that, in Perniola's view, have been central to European aesthteic theory: Life, Form, Consciousness, Action and Feeling. During the course of this exploration, he takes in many of the most important thinkers of the century, from Foucault, Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty, through Agamben, Jung and Adorno, to McLuhan and Rorty. Originally published in 1997 and fully updated for its first English translation, the book also includes a new conclusion by Perniola in which he outlines his own aesthetic theory of feeling"--