Art

Taken as a unified work, Feel Free is a meditation on the purpose of art and its relationship to the political realm. Although Smith makes this claim in alternately explicit and implicit terms, she argues that art serves to teach us about ourselves, about others, and ultimately, about death, which awaits all of us.

This argument is made clearest in the chapter, “Man Versus Corpse,” in which Smith muses on the meaning of death to and in art. Smith writes: “A persistent problem for artists: How can I insist upon the reality of death, for others, and for myself? This is not mere existentialist noodling (though it can be that, too). It’s part of what art is here to imagine for us and with us. (I’m a sentimental humanist: I believe art is here to help even if the help is painful—especially then.)” (371). This passage...