L’ontologie de régime de Gérard Genette

Abstract

What does Gérard Genette mean by ontology of art ? In order to answer this question, one may distinguish two forms of ontology. The first type answers the question What things do exist and what is their nature ? The second type is about the things’ modes of existence, as distinct from the nature of things. The first part of The Work of Art, with the fundamental distinction it makes between immanence and transcendence, aims to address the questions raised by by the modes of existence of artworks identified as such by the usages and practices of the artworld. Thus, Genette’s ontology is of the second type. However, does Genette succeed in his attempt to eschew the two major question of the first type o ontology—the existence and the nature of artworks ? To what extent may one suggest that these two questions pervade his whole ontology of art ?