Set in the art world of the early nineteen-eighties, the elements ‘Theft’ and ‘Love’ abound in a turbulent adventure of pretence and deceit, deftly written in a genre-mix of crime story, romance, fictional Künstlerroman and fictional memoir, with traces of biographical data from the author. This essay examines Peter Carey’s novel Theft: A Love Story from the aspect of a particular depiction of ‘Truth and Lies in a Postmodern Sense’, which I intend as a pun on Nietzsche’s essay ‘On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense’. Moreover, I seek to apply Nietzsche’s epistemic thesis of perspectivism, according to which any act of understanding depends on the dispositions and biases built into the perspective out of which it was made. Perspectivism is a useful theory that can be applied to examine the motivation of many characters in Theft. The novel is preoccupied with dishonest dealings in which the concept of theft pervades throughout and even intrudes into the world of private relationships; it shows morals being no longer conditioned by any commonly held universal truths, such as ‘good or bad’, ‘right or wrong’. Instead, all moral categorical imperatives have lost their absolute meaning and are shown to have been subsumed under various relative points of view, a subjective preference of each individual – features that seem to have become characteristic of postmodern society. The main characters in the novel exhibit a moral relativism that goes against the Kantian maxim that each person should be treated as an end, never as a mere means to our ends. Moral relativism and the perspective of a wounded ego of a divorcee might even show to be the author’s emotional dilemma with which he faces his own ethical problem in the book: there frequently emerge difficulties for readers not only in deciding which characters are actually fictional, but also how many autobiographical references can be detected, if the reader assumes that the protagonist with his bitterness for his ex-wife might be set up as an alter-ego figure.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
2. Moral Relativism
3. Authenticity as a Moral Ideal
4. The Role of the Authenticator and the Value of Provenance
5. The Value of Artwork in the Marketplace
6. Postmodern Artists’ relation with Precursors
7. Fictional Autobiography
8. The Connection between ‘Value’ and ‘Price’
9. CONCLUSION
Objectives and Topics
This essay explores Peter Carey's novel Theft: A Love Story, examining how the themes of moral relativism and Nietzschean perspectivism define the postmodern art world. It investigates the erosion of universal values and the emergence of market-driven authenticity, while analyzing the blurred boundaries between the author's biography and fictional narrative.
- The intersection of moral relativism and postmodern perspectives in the art market.
- The shifting authority of the artist, the authenticator, and the buyer in validating art.
- The commodity-driven nature of art and the disintegration of the connection between intrinsic value and market price.
- The meta-fictional interplay between authorial experience and fictional characterization.
- The role of forgery and pastiche as responses to the postmodern dilemma of creativity.
Excerpt from the Book
The Role of the Authenticator and the Value of Provenance
There are many thefts in the plot and the novel is particularly concerned with the meaning of authenticity, as a concept that refers to a convergence between how something presents itself and what it actually is, which is shown as being contested in both ontological and epistemological frameworks: aesthetic and moral values are constructed and subservient to economic values set up by authorities and institutional powers. Furthermore, the novel makes the claim that individual relationships work under the same utilitarian calculus: moral values become skewed when self-interest impedes trust between partners and duplicity is shown as a way of life in a world in which value and truth have become outdated concepts.
The very nature of art, the status of originals and the different kinds of value that art can take on for different people in an inflated market, are all called into question. In the novel, the value of a masterpiece depends not primarily on its essential ‘quality’ but upon its provenance, that is, the record of ownership that establishes its authenticity back to the creator. It is characteristic of an insatiable neo-capitalist market, where demand exceeds supply, that there is even room for the authentication of works, of whatever age or style, which would have been previously considered as dubious. Here, in spite of its deaccessioned status, a de Chirico painting still sells for three million dollars.
Summary of Chapters
INTRODUCTION: Establishes the novel's setting and the application of Nietzsche’s perspectivism to the characters' moral motivations.
Moral Relativism: Examines how the characters navigate a world where universal moral truths are replaced by subjective, individualistic positions.
Authenticity as a Moral Ideal: Discusses the corruption of aesthetic judgment when profit-driven motives supersede intrinsic artistic value.
The Role of the Authenticator and the Value of Provenance: Analyzes how authority in the art world shifts from the artist to the authenticator and the buyer.
The Value of Artwork in the Marketplace: Explores the transformation of art into a speculative commodity and the consequences of authorship being treated as a perspectival evaluation.
Postmodern Artists’ relation with Precursors: Looks at the artist's struggle with belatedness and the necessity of recycling past traditions.
Fictional Autobiography: Investigates the complex relationship between the author’s life and the experiences of his fictional protagonist.
The Connection between ‘Value’ and ‘Price’: Analyzes the disintegration of the link between an object’s worth and its monetary value, culminating in the novel's central dilemma.
CONCLUSION: Summarizes how Theft: A Love Story depicts the pervasive moral decay of a society where art is reduced to a commodified, market-dependent object.
Keywords
Postmodernism, Nietzschean perspectivism, moral relativism, art market, authenticity, provenance, commodification, authorship, Peter Carey, theft, forgery, Künstlerroman, biographical fiction, aesthetic value, neo-capitalism.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this academic paper?
The paper examines Peter Carey’s novel Theft: A Love Story to illustrate how postmodern concepts of truth, lies, and perspectivism manifest within the modern art industry.
What are the central thematic fields covered in this study?
The study covers the moral decay in the art market, the nature of artistic authenticity, the commodification of creative work, and the interplay between fact and fiction in literature.
What is the primary research goal of the work?
The goal is to analyze how the novel portrays the shift from absolute values to relative, market-determined truths, and how this impacts the artist's identity and morality.
Which scientific methods are employed in this analysis?
The work utilizes literary analysis, applying Nietzschean philosophical frameworks (perspectivism) and deconstructionist theories to the narrative structure of the novel.
What core topics are addressed in the main body?
The main body focuses on the roles of the authenticator, the provenance of art, the motivation of characters through moral relativism, and the meta-fictional links to the author's own life.
Which keywords characterize the essence of the work?
Key terms include postmodernism, moral relativism, art commodification, Nietzschean perspectivism, and authorship.
How does the author of this paper view the role of the buyer in the art market?
The paper argues that the buyer has superseded the artist and authenticator, asserting power by determining what is "legitimate" art based on financial speculation rather than aesthetic merit.
What is the significance of the "droit moral" in the context of the novel?
The droit moral serves as a legal tool that is abused within the novel to manipulate the value of art, illustrating the transition of art from a cultural object to a negotiable financial asset.
- Citar trabajo
- Dr Sabine Mercer (Autor), 2006, The Value of Art and the Value of Love. Moral Relativism, Nietzschean Perspectivism and Questions of Authenticity, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/417227
