Susanne Katherina Knauth Langer
Personal Information
Description
Susanne Katherina Langer (; née Knauth; December 20, 1895 – July 17, 1985) was an American philosopher, writer, and educator known for her theories on the influences of art on the mind. She was one of the earliest American women to achieve an academic career in philosophy. Langer is best remembered for her 1942 book Philosophy in a New Key, which was followed by a sequel, Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art, in 1953. In 1960, Langer was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Books
Reflections on art
The twenty-six essays which compose this volume bring together some of the finest contemporary contributions to art criticism and the philosophy of aesthetics. Some of the selections deal with such philosophical considerations as the aesthetic problem of distance and the nature of dramatic illusion; other essays discuss specific art forms such as sculpture, music, dance, motion pictures, architecture, and poetry. Many of the essays chosen by Miss Langer have previously been available only in their French or German originals; all of the selections contribute to the clarification of older ideas and they propound new insights in that difficult realm of the philosophy of art. Although each essay is a self-contained entity, the various selections unite to form a well-coordinated and authoritative statement of the expressiveness, quality, and inter-relation of contemporary art forms--back cover.