When you are half lost in a work of art, what happens to the half left behind? Semi-Detached delves into this state of being: what it means to be within and without our social and physical milieu, at once interacting and drifting away, and how it affects our ideas about aesthetics. The allure of many modern aesthetic experiences, this book argues, "Semi-Detached is a challenging and highly rewarding account, which illuminates a central but – until now – underexplored aspect of aesthetic experience."---Karin Koehler, Modern Language Review