Cytherica boldly introduces a new faculty of thought called cytherics to contemporary academic discursivities. It defines cytherics as the sighting and siting of an aesthetic-erotic, or «aphrodisian», environment. Building on the furthest extensions of aesthetics since the eighteenth century, cytherics develops both the aesthetic-political and aesthetic-erotic dimensions of the aesthetic tradition to formulate exciting new responses to the pressing issues of contemporary societies. While drawing richly on the background of German and European Hellenism, this book provides valuable new insights for those working in the areas of the aesthetic-political, critical theory, postmodernist discursivities, and dialectical speculation.

The Author: Josef Chytry is Adjunct Professor of Cultural History and Visual Criticism at the California College of the Arts and Managing Editor of the Oxford journal Industrial and Corporate Change. He received his D.Phil. in politics and the history of ideas from the University of Oxford and was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in philosophy at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Dr. Chytry is author of The Aesthetic State: A Quest in Modern German Thought and co-editor of Understanding Industrial and Corporate Change and Technology, Organization, and Competitiveness.