Za hranicemi jazyka. K teorii umění Susanne Langerové

To discuss a question of the possibility of a“translation” of a visual work of art into language, the paper outlines the distinction between presentational and discoursive symbols as it was conceived by Susanne Langer. It emphasizes the fact that the disctinction does not overlap with a difference between the picture and the language. Since the arts (visual as well as literary ones) are a primary example of presentational symbolism, the paper focuses on the mechanism of “swallowing” or “recruiting” a variety of material, including the discoursive one, in the creation of works of art. It is emphasized that presentational symbolism is a form of non-discoursive knowledge; a claim that, eventually, implies that works of art are liable to discoursive treatement only provisionally, with an acknowledgement of the limits of such an endeavour. The discoursive exercise of the philosophy of art is then primarily oriented towards securing the conceptual space in which artworks are granted the status of genuine knowledge.