Abstract
The paper will consider the affective aspect in establishing an artwork as a medium in relation to the concept of (inner) rhythm as developed by artists of the avantgarde (especially 1910s-1930s) across different media (painting, film, literature, music). I intend to present the following three areas of interest: 1) Theoretically grounded in writings of Bauhaus representatives, especially Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, I would like to focus mainly on the category of internal as French philosopher Michel Henry deals with it in Seeing the Invisible on Kandinsky.
He puts an equal sign between the inner and pathos claiming that affectivity is the prior means of revealing the internal life, in other words, revealing the artwork as a medium. 2) A question will be considered how these avant-garde theories function on a more general level of contemporary media theory. The main concern is: What can a sign mediate and how should we handle the "unutterable" (Unsagbares/nevyslovitelné) often mentioned in connection to strong emotions (from Goethe to modernist and avant-garde authors and thinkers).
How does affect/emotions qualify in terms of medial process? What role does rhythm play in relation to affect and medial process? 3) I want to argue that theories developed in terms of visual arts (also including film) had impact on literature, namely Expressionist writings; explored will be scenes of cruelty with promoted visual and corporeal element in relation to rhythm and how this inner rhythmicality relates to affectivity (Nietzsche, for example, distinguishes between temporal and affective rhythm). Example will be chosen accordingly from German or Czech written literature of the period.