ABSTRACT

In the essay "Origin of the Work of Art", Heidegger traces the subject-predicate structure of language and the substance-accident structure of things to show how both are derived from the analysis of the "mere thing" into some matter that stands together with some form: a form always determined by the use to which the thing will be put. This allows both the appearance of the thing and that of language to remain constant. Together philosophers operate to fragment unified language predicated on Being, and to reveal, on the surface of beings, a postmodern theory of language; one that has come to be formulated as a language in art. Marcel Duchamp offers us the art work stripped bare of the character of usefulness and of the structure of presence. Heidegger and Julia Kristeva maintain the detached work of art in a significational silence, punctuated only by the rhythm of the material word.