Negativity and Zwischen : An Account of Byung-Chul Han’s Aesthetics

Byung-Chul Han’s reflections on aesthetics are heavily influenced by Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutic reading of phenomenology and the theses of his Doktormutter, Utte Guzzoni, on the mutual determination of opposites and the intermediate space (Zwischen) that serves as a background for their constitution. Once these foundations have been explored, it can be seen how Hanian approaches to the aesthetic dimension of phenomena are connected with his criticisms of the philosophical development of the West and the problems of its contemporary facet. Therefore, what is analyzed here is not a mere way of looking or relating to objects, but how this peculiar modality of being-in-the-world comes to dominate our understanding of objects and our way of relating to them. Both Heidegger’s account of how this modality of understanding came to be, and Guzzoni’s exploration of Zen Buddhism and haiku poetry are of the utmost relevance in Han’s proposals on the matter. From these premises, as well as from his own reflections on such important concepts as Stimmung, Byung-Chul Han develops a perspective that proposes interesting approaches to the relation between positivity and negativity. This paper will also offer some criticism about Han’s notion of the given which, as it stands, contradicts some basic tenets on phenomenology.