Johanna Malt
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199253425
- eISBN:
- 9780191698132
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253425.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
In a speech given in Prague in 1935, André Breton asked, ‘Is there, properly speaking, a left-wing art capable of defending itself?’. But despite his conviction that surrealism did indeed offer such ...
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In a speech given in Prague in 1935, André Breton asked, ‘Is there, properly speaking, a left-wing art capable of defending itself?’. But despite his conviction that surrealism did indeed offer such an art, Breton always struggled to make a theoretical connection between the surrealists' commitment to the cause of revolutionary socialism and the form that surrealist art and literature took. This book explores ways in which such a connection might be drawn, addressing the possibility of surrealist works as political in themselves and drawing on ways in which they have been considered as such by Marxists such as Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. Encompassing Breton's and Louis Aragon's textual accounts of the object, as well as paintings and the various kinds of objet surréaliste produced from the end of the 1920s, it mobilises the concept of the fetish in order to consider such works as meeting points of surrealism's psychoanalytic and revolutionary preoccupations. Reading surrealist works of art and literature as political is not the same as knowing the surrealist movement to have been politically motivated. The revolutionary character of surrealist work is not always evident; indeed, the works themselves often seem to express a rather different set of concerns. As well as offering a new perspective on familiar and relatively neglected works, this book recuperates the gap between theory and practice as a productive space in which it is possible to recontextualise surrealist practice as an engagement with political questions on its own terms.Less
In a speech given in Prague in 1935, André Breton asked, ‘Is there, properly speaking, a left-wing art capable of defending itself?’. But despite his conviction that surrealism did indeed offer such an art, Breton always struggled to make a theoretical connection between the surrealists' commitment to the cause of revolutionary socialism and the form that surrealist art and literature took. This book explores ways in which such a connection might be drawn, addressing the possibility of surrealist works as political in themselves and drawing on ways in which they have been considered as such by Marxists such as Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. Encompassing Breton's and Louis Aragon's textual accounts of the object, as well as paintings and the various kinds of objet surréaliste produced from the end of the 1920s, it mobilises the concept of the fetish in order to consider such works as meeting points of surrealism's psychoanalytic and revolutionary preoccupations. Reading surrealist works of art and literature as political is not the same as knowing the surrealist movement to have been politically motivated. The revolutionary character of surrealist work is not always evident; indeed, the works themselves often seem to express a rather different set of concerns. As well as offering a new perspective on familiar and relatively neglected works, this book recuperates the gap between theory and practice as a productive space in which it is possible to recontextualise surrealist practice as an engagement with political questions on its own terms.
Hugh Grady
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198130048
- eISBN:
- 9780191671906
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198130048.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
William Shakespeare was neither a Royalist defender of order and hierarchy nor a consistently radical champion of social equality, but rather simultaneously radical ...
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William Shakespeare was neither a Royalist defender of order and hierarchy nor a consistently radical champion of social equality, but rather simultaneously radical and conservative as a critic of emerging forms of modernity. This book argues that Shakespeare's social criticism in fact often parallels that of critics of modernity from our own Postmodernist era: that the broad analysis of modernity produced by Karl Marx, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Michel Foucault, and others can serve as a productive enabling representation and critique of the emerging modernity represented by the image in Troilus and Cressida of ‘an universal wolf’ of appetite, power, and will. The readings in this book demonstrate Shakespeare's keen interest in what twentieth-century theory has called ‘reification’ — a term that designates social systems created by human societies, but that confronts those societies as operating beyond human control, according to an autonomous ‘systems’ logic — in nascent mercantile capitalism, in power-oriented Machiavellian politics, and in the scientistic, value-free rationality which Horkheimer and Adorno call ‘instrumental reason’.Less
William Shakespeare was neither a Royalist defender of order and hierarchy nor a consistently radical champion of social equality, but rather simultaneously radical and conservative as a critic of emerging forms of modernity. This book argues that Shakespeare's social criticism in fact often parallels that of critics of modernity from our own Postmodernist era: that the broad analysis of modernity produced by Karl Marx, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Michel Foucault, and others can serve as a productive enabling representation and critique of the emerging modernity represented by the image in Troilus and Cressida of ‘an universal wolf’ of appetite, power, and will. The readings in this book demonstrate Shakespeare's keen interest in what twentieth-century theory has called ‘reification’ — a term that designates social systems created by human societies, but that confronts those societies as operating beyond human control, according to an autonomous ‘systems’ logic — in nascent mercantile capitalism, in power-oriented Machiavellian politics, and in the scientistic, value-free rationality which Horkheimer and Adorno call ‘instrumental reason’.
Jan Wahl
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813136189
- eISBN:
- 9780813141176
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136189.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Regarded by many filmmakers and critics as one of the greatest directors in cinema history, Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) achieved worldwide acclaim after the debut of his masterpiece, The Passion ...
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Regarded by many filmmakers and critics as one of the greatest directors in cinema history, Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) achieved worldwide acclaim after the debut of his masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Named the most influential film of all time at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, the classic film and its legendary director still exert strong influence even today. In 1955, Jan Wahl, an American student, had the extraordinary opportunity at the age of twenty to spend a unique and unforgettable summer with Dreyer as the director filmed Ordet or The Word (1955). Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ordet: My Summer with the Danish Filmmaker is a captivating account of Wahl's time with the director, based on Wahl's daily journal accounts and transcriptions of his conversations with Dreyer. Offering a glimpse into the filmmaker's world, Wahl fashions a portrait of Dreyer as a man, mentor, friend, and director. Wahl's unique and charming account is supplemented by exquisite photos of the filming and by selections from Dreyer's papers, including his notes on film style, his introduction for the actors before the filming of Ordet, and a visionary lecture he delivered at Edinburgh. Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ordet details one student's remarkable experiences with a legendary director and the unlikely bond formed over a summer.Less
Regarded by many filmmakers and critics as one of the greatest directors in cinema history, Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) achieved worldwide acclaim after the debut of his masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Named the most influential film of all time at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, the classic film and its legendary director still exert strong influence even today. In 1955, Jan Wahl, an American student, had the extraordinary opportunity at the age of twenty to spend a unique and unforgettable summer with Dreyer as the director filmed Ordet or The Word (1955). Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ordet: My Summer with the Danish Filmmaker is a captivating account of Wahl's time with the director, based on Wahl's daily journal accounts and transcriptions of his conversations with Dreyer. Offering a glimpse into the filmmaker's world, Wahl fashions a portrait of Dreyer as a man, mentor, friend, and director. Wahl's unique and charming account is supplemented by exquisite photos of the filming and by selections from Dreyer's papers, including his notes on film style, his introduction for the actors before the filming of Ordet, and a visionary lecture he delivered at Edinburgh. Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ordet details one student's remarkable experiences with a legendary director and the unlikely bond formed over a summer.
Eric F. Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195151947
- eISBN:
- 9780199870400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151947.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter starts by acknowledging that much of the discussion of music in the previous chapters has focused on music that has a strong and obvious link to materials outside music (texts, dramatic ...
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This chapter starts by acknowledging that much of the discussion of music in the previous chapters has focused on music that has a strong and obvious link to materials outside music (texts, dramatic or narrative context, ideological allegiances), and considers whether and how the ecological approach can shed light on the so-called absolute and autonomous music of the Western canon. After a brief discussion of the concepts of autonomy and heteronomy, the chapter moves to a discussion of autonomy and ecology, and from there to a discussion of different listening styles. A number of different characterizations of listening are presented, including two typologies — by Theodor Adorno and Pierre Schaeffer. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the specific character of autonomous music and the particular kind of consciousness that it can afford.Less
This chapter starts by acknowledging that much of the discussion of music in the previous chapters has focused on music that has a strong and obvious link to materials outside music (texts, dramatic or narrative context, ideological allegiances), and considers whether and how the ecological approach can shed light on the so-called absolute and autonomous music of the Western canon. After a brief discussion of the concepts of autonomy and heteronomy, the chapter moves to a discussion of autonomy and ecology, and from there to a discussion of different listening styles. A number of different characterizations of listening are presented, including two typologies — by Theodor Adorno and Pierre Schaeffer. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the specific character of autonomous music and the particular kind of consciousness that it can afford.
Werner Hüllen
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199553235
- eISBN:
- 9780191720352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199553235.003.0006
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Lexicography
Théodore Robertson's version of Roget's Thesaurus is analysed as a faithful translation into French because it fitted perfectly into the pedagogic programme of the French grammarian. However, its ...
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Théodore Robertson's version of Roget's Thesaurus is analysed as a faithful translation into French because it fitted perfectly into the pedagogic programme of the French grammarian. However, its impact on French lexicography was very small. Julio Casares' so-called dictionnaire analogique is presented as the Romance version of a topical dictionary (dictionnaire idéologique) which unites the ideational and the alphabetical order. The so-called ‘thesaurus dictionary’ by March, which was published in the US at the beginning of the 20th century, and quite modern dictionaries of synonyms follow the same mixed technique of an integrated topical and alphabetical arrangement.Less
Théodore Robertson's version of Roget's Thesaurus is analysed as a faithful translation into French because it fitted perfectly into the pedagogic programme of the French grammarian. However, its impact on French lexicography was very small. Julio Casares' so-called dictionnaire analogique is presented as the Romance version of a topical dictionary (dictionnaire idéologique) which unites the ideational and the alphabetical order. The so-called ‘thesaurus dictionary’ by March, which was published in the US at the beginning of the 20th century, and quite modern dictionaries of synonyms follow the same mixed technique of an integrated topical and alphabetical arrangement.
Richard H. Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199212989
- eISBN:
- 9780191594205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212989.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses the unique plight of middle‐class Jews in the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, and uses Sigmund Freud as a representative case. Classical education in the tradition of Humboldtian ...
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This chapter discusses the unique plight of middle‐class Jews in the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, and uses Sigmund Freud as a representative case. Classical education in the tradition of Humboldtian Bildung had given newly emancipated Jews high hopes of becoming integrated into the national mainstream through their intellectual efforts. But despite Jewish achievements, the nationalisms that wracked the failing empire resorted increasingly to political anti‐Semitism as a unifying expedient, thrusting Jews into positions of either Zionist opposition or high‐minded but ineffectual liberal opposition. Freud and Theodor Herzl embody these two responses; while Herzl organized a Jewish nationalism that to many seemed quite pagan and not at all Jewish, Freud chose instead to ally with science and rejected nationalist enthusiasms as dangerous psychological traps.Less
This chapter discusses the unique plight of middle‐class Jews in the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, and uses Sigmund Freud as a representative case. Classical education in the tradition of Humboldtian Bildung had given newly emancipated Jews high hopes of becoming integrated into the national mainstream through their intellectual efforts. But despite Jewish achievements, the nationalisms that wracked the failing empire resorted increasingly to political anti‐Semitism as a unifying expedient, thrusting Jews into positions of either Zionist opposition or high‐minded but ineffectual liberal opposition. Freud and Theodor Herzl embody these two responses; while Herzl organized a Jewish nationalism that to many seemed quite pagan and not at all Jewish, Freud chose instead to ally with science and rejected nationalist enthusiasms as dangerous psychological traps.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239764
- eISBN:
- 9780191716836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239764.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
In the Roman republic, only the People could make laws and elect politicians to office; the word respublica means ‘The People's business’. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an ...
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In the Roman republic, only the People could make laws and elect politicians to office; the word respublica means ‘The People's business’. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The reading of late-republican politics as a non-ideological competition for office was created by Gelzer in 1912 in reaction against the ‘party-political’ model presupposed by Mommsen; reinforced by Münzer (1920) and Syme (1939), it was enshrined as accepted doctrine in ‘Paully-Wissowa’. This chapter argues that the Gelzer model relies on the misinterpretation of a key text, that close reading of the contemporary sources reveals far more ideological conflict than the Gelzer model allows, and that one of the results of assuming its truth has been a failure to appreciate the political background of the historian Licinius Macer.Less
In the Roman republic, only the People could make laws and elect politicians to office; the word respublica means ‘The People's business’. So why is it always assumed that the republic was an oligarchy? The reading of late-republican politics as a non-ideological competition for office was created by Gelzer in 1912 in reaction against the ‘party-political’ model presupposed by Mommsen; reinforced by Münzer (1920) and Syme (1939), it was enshrined as accepted doctrine in ‘Paully-Wissowa’. This chapter argues that the Gelzer model relies on the misinterpretation of a key text, that close reading of the contemporary sources reveals far more ideological conflict than the Gelzer model allows, and that one of the results of assuming its truth has been a failure to appreciate the political background of the historian Licinius Macer.
Andrew N. Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154152
- eISBN:
- 9781400842179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154152.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which ...
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This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which had damaged the very category of experience in general. Positivism and empiricism had reduced reality to a prosaic and administered calculus, the effect of which was embodied in the position of the exile when confronted with modernity. Moreover, as Adorno writes, “It is unmistakably clear to the intellectual from abroad that he will have to eradicate himself as an autonomous being if he hopes to achieve anything.” In postwar Germany, his critique of positivism would face new, mostly institutional challenges.Less
This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which had damaged the very category of experience in general. Positivism and empiricism had reduced reality to a prosaic and administered calculus, the effect of which was embodied in the position of the exile when confronted with modernity. Moreover, as Adorno writes, “It is unmistakably clear to the intellectual from abroad that he will have to eradicate himself as an autonomous being if he hopes to achieve anything.” In postwar Germany, his critique of positivism would face new, mostly institutional challenges.
Margaret Notley
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195305470
- eISBN:
- 9780199866946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305470.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter resumes discussion begun in the first chapter, focusing on the changed outlooks of Brahms and his Viennese colleagues in the 1890s. Prominent citizens who had earlier objected to signs ...
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This chapter resumes discussion begun in the first chapter, focusing on the changed outlooks of Brahms and his Viennese colleagues in the 1890s. Prominent citizens who had earlier objected to signs of Czech nationalism now recognized consequences of German nationalism. Hanslick, who had grown up in Prague, exemplified contradictions of Liberalism in his simultaneous admiration for and unwitting condescension toward Dvořák. Discussion of reception of Dvořák's music by Hanslick and Theodor Helm highlights differences between the older and newer German nationalism. Brahms's library and an overlooked archival collection afford insights into his views. An orthodox Liberal, he rejected the cultural despair of German tribalism but voiced discouragement about the future of music. Liberal economics were being unmasked as second nature, as would absolute tonal music slightly later. Yet Brahms's late music is beautiful because it responds to demands of music-historical lateness while conveying the peculiar expressiveness of a late style.Less
This chapter resumes discussion begun in the first chapter, focusing on the changed outlooks of Brahms and his Viennese colleagues in the 1890s. Prominent citizens who had earlier objected to signs of Czech nationalism now recognized consequences of German nationalism. Hanslick, who had grown up in Prague, exemplified contradictions of Liberalism in his simultaneous admiration for and unwitting condescension toward Dvořák. Discussion of reception of Dvořák's music by Hanslick and Theodor Helm highlights differences between the older and newer German nationalism. Brahms's library and an overlooked archival collection afford insights into his views. An orthodox Liberal, he rejected the cultural despair of German tribalism but voiced discouragement about the future of music. Liberal economics were being unmasked as second nature, as would absolute tonal music slightly later. Yet Brahms's late music is beautiful because it responds to demands of music-historical lateness while conveying the peculiar expressiveness of a late style.
Jack Zipes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160580
- eISBN:
- 9781400852581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160580.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This concluding chapter examines the explorations of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), the great philosopher of hope, and Theodor Adorno (1903–69), the foremost critical thinker of the Frankfurt School, ...
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This concluding chapter examines the explorations of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), the great philosopher of hope, and Theodor Adorno (1903–69), the foremost critical thinker of the Frankfurt School, concerning the profound ramifications of the fairy tale. In doing so they made a significant contribution to the Grimms' cultural legacy. The chapter reveals that, not long after Bloch escaped the dystopian realm of East Germany in 1961, he held a radio discussion with Adorno about the contradictions of utopian longing. Both displayed an unusual interest in fairy tales and were very familiar with the Grimms' tales, which they considered to be utopian.Less
This concluding chapter examines the explorations of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), the great philosopher of hope, and Theodor Adorno (1903–69), the foremost critical thinker of the Frankfurt School, concerning the profound ramifications of the fairy tale. In doing so they made a significant contribution to the Grimms' cultural legacy. The chapter reveals that, not long after Bloch escaped the dystopian realm of East Germany in 1961, he held a radio discussion with Adorno about the contradictions of utopian longing. Both displayed an unusual interest in fairy tales and were very familiar with the Grimms' tales, which they considered to be utopian.
Beate Kutschke
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
The West‐German avant‐garde music scene of the early 1970s—the period in which the spirit of the New Left manifested itself most intensively in the musical field—was especially marked by the numerous ...
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The West‐German avant‐garde music scene of the early 1970s—the period in which the spirit of the New Left manifested itself most intensively in the musical field—was especially marked by the numerous discussions and debates about the nature of political music, its perfection and failures, conducted by musicians and music writers with endless energy and engagement. This chapter throws light on one of these debates: the argument between Nikolaus A. Huber and Clytus Gottwald in 1971–72 about Huber's composition Harakiri. It investigates the terms of the debate, firstly with regard to the musical facts—and in particular a comparison made at the time between Huber's Harakiri and Hans Otte's contemporary piece, Zero—and secondly with regard to the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno, who provided the New Leftist avant‐gardists with politico‐aesthetical ideas.Less
The West‐German avant‐garde music scene of the early 1970s—the period in which the spirit of the New Left manifested itself most intensively in the musical field—was especially marked by the numerous discussions and debates about the nature of political music, its perfection and failures, conducted by musicians and music writers with endless energy and engagement. This chapter throws light on one of these debates: the argument between Nikolaus A. Huber and Clytus Gottwald in 1971–72 about Huber's composition Harakiri. It investigates the terms of the debate, firstly with regard to the musical facts—and in particular a comparison made at the time between Huber's Harakiri and Hans Otte's contemporary piece, Zero—and secondly with regard to the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno, who provided the New Leftist avant‐gardists with politico‐aesthetical ideas.
David Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282388
- eISBN:
- 9780823284948
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282388.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Under Representation argues that the relation between the concepts of universality, freedom and humanity, and the racial order of the modern world is grounded in the founding texts of aesthetic ...
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Under Representation argues that the relation between the concepts of universality, freedom and humanity, and the racial order of the modern world is grounded in the founding texts of aesthetic philosophy. It challenges the absence of sustained thought about race in postcolonial studies and the lack of attention to aesthetics in critical race theory. Late Enlightenment discourse on aesthetic experience proposes a decisive account of the conditions of possibility for universal human subjecthood. The aesthetic forges a powerful racial regime of representation whose genealogy runs from enlightenment thinkers like Kant and Schiller to late modernist critics like Adorno and Benjamin. For aesthetic philosophy, representation is an activity that articulates the various spheres of human practice and theory, from the most fundamental acts of perception and reflection to the relation of the subject to the political, the economic, and the social. Representation regulates the distribution of racial identifications along a developmental trajectory: the racialized remain “under representation,” on the threshold of humanity and not yet capable of freedom and civility as aesthetic thought defines those attributes. To ignore the aesthetic is thus to overlook its continuing force in the formation of the racial and political structures down to the present. In its five chapters, Under Representation investigates the aesthetic foundations of modern political subjectivity; race and the sublime; the logic of assimilation and the sterotype; the subaltern critique of representation; and the place of magic and the primitive in modernist concepts of art, aura, and representation.Less
Under Representation argues that the relation between the concepts of universality, freedom and humanity, and the racial order of the modern world is grounded in the founding texts of aesthetic philosophy. It challenges the absence of sustained thought about race in postcolonial studies and the lack of attention to aesthetics in critical race theory. Late Enlightenment discourse on aesthetic experience proposes a decisive account of the conditions of possibility for universal human subjecthood. The aesthetic forges a powerful racial regime of representation whose genealogy runs from enlightenment thinkers like Kant and Schiller to late modernist critics like Adorno and Benjamin. For aesthetic philosophy, representation is an activity that articulates the various spheres of human practice and theory, from the most fundamental acts of perception and reflection to the relation of the subject to the political, the economic, and the social. Representation regulates the distribution of racial identifications along a developmental trajectory: the racialized remain “under representation,” on the threshold of humanity and not yet capable of freedom and civility as aesthetic thought defines those attributes. To ignore the aesthetic is thus to overlook its continuing force in the formation of the racial and political structures down to the present. In its five chapters, Under Representation investigates the aesthetic foundations of modern political subjectivity; race and the sublime; the logic of assimilation and the sterotype; the subaltern critique of representation; and the place of magic and the primitive in modernist concepts of art, aura, and representation.
Joanna Demers
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195387650
- eISBN:
- 9780199863594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387650.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, History, American
Near the end of his life, Pierre Schaeffer gave an interview in which he described his attempt to develop a new musical language as a “failure.” Using Schaeffer’s dismal assessment of his life’s work ...
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Near the end of his life, Pierre Schaeffer gave an interview in which he described his attempt to develop a new musical language as a “failure.” Using Schaeffer’s dismal assessment of his life’s work as a point of departure, the conclusion considers the anxiety that experimental electronic music generates. The technical control that electronic instruments and applications afford is such that many electronic works behave nothing like conventional music. They may utterly avoid any trappings of melody, harmony, or predictable rhythm and may seem more similar to other media such as film or documentary. The conclusion argues that while its lack of musical parameters encourages a different type of listening experience, electronic music nonetheless cultivates an aesthetic awareness of sound, one anticipated in Theodor Adorno’s theory of “regressive listening.”Less
Near the end of his life, Pierre Schaeffer gave an interview in which he described his attempt to develop a new musical language as a “failure.” Using Schaeffer’s dismal assessment of his life’s work as a point of departure, the conclusion considers the anxiety that experimental electronic music generates. The technical control that electronic instruments and applications afford is such that many electronic works behave nothing like conventional music. They may utterly avoid any trappings of melody, harmony, or predictable rhythm and may seem more similar to other media such as film or documentary. The conclusion argues that while its lack of musical parameters encourages a different type of listening experience, electronic music nonetheless cultivates an aesthetic awareness of sound, one anticipated in Theodor Adorno’s theory of “regressive listening.”
Albert R. Rice
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195343281
- eISBN:
- 9780199867813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195343281.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
For the basset horn, the second chapter develops a precise definition; lists defining features; identifies and defines terminology; establishes origins and history; paints an historical picture; ...
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For the basset horn, the second chapter develops a precise definition; lists defining features; identifies and defines terminology; establishes origins and history; paints an historical picture; discusses instructional materials; lists makers chronologically; and describes extant instruments.Less
For the basset horn, the second chapter develops a precise definition; lists defining features; identifies and defines terminology; establishes origins and history; paints an historical picture; discusses instructional materials; lists makers chronologically; and describes extant instruments.
Martha C. Nussbaum
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195325195
- eISBN:
- 9780199776412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325195.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, General
Most discussions of the continuity in compassionate concern between humans and other animals focus on continuities and on “good discontinuities,” areas in which humans appear to have superior moral ...
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Most discussions of the continuity in compassionate concern between humans and other animals focus on continuities and on “good discontinuities,” areas in which humans appear to have superior moral abilities. This chapter focuses on “bad discontinuities,” areas in which human compassion appears diseased and obtuse in ways that correspond to no defect in other species. After offering an analysis of the cognitive structure of compassion, the chapter then examines the relationship between each component of compassion, as it appears in standard human cases, and its role in a variety of animal cases, mapping the differences between humans and a range of animal species. The chapter then attempts to pinpoint the ways in which human compassion goes awry, through the influence of distortions supplied both by defective cultural norms and by a more tenacious underlying anxiety about weakness and need that leads human beings to create classes of subordinate beings to whom they then refuse compassion. Finally, this analysis is used to illuminate a range of cases in which humans refuse compassion to other humans in ways that appear deformed and reprehensible.Less
Most discussions of the continuity in compassionate concern between humans and other animals focus on continuities and on “good discontinuities,” areas in which humans appear to have superior moral abilities. This chapter focuses on “bad discontinuities,” areas in which human compassion appears diseased and obtuse in ways that correspond to no defect in other species. After offering an analysis of the cognitive structure of compassion, the chapter then examines the relationship between each component of compassion, as it appears in standard human cases, and its role in a variety of animal cases, mapping the differences between humans and a range of animal species. The chapter then attempts to pinpoint the ways in which human compassion goes awry, through the influence of distortions supplied both by defective cultural norms and by a more tenacious underlying anxiety about weakness and need that leads human beings to create classes of subordinate beings to whom they then refuse compassion. Finally, this analysis is used to illuminate a range of cases in which humans refuse compassion to other humans in ways that appear deformed and reprehensible.
John Goodyear
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199759392
- eISBN:
- 9780199918911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759392.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
At the outset of the twentieth century, the new noisy urban soundscape was a source of fascination and frustration. For the frustrated, for those attempting to escape the urban din, help would soon ...
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At the outset of the twentieth century, the new noisy urban soundscape was a source of fascination and frustration. For the frustrated, for those attempting to escape the urban din, help would soon be at hand. Two men embarked on novel projects in 1908 to bring peace and quiet to the noisy urban world. Theodor Lessing’s Antilärmverein, a socio-political initiative to fight noise, would be short-lived, lasting just three years; yet Maximilian Negwer’s Ohropax earplugs would stand the test of time and offer relief to those frustrated by noise right into the twenty-first century. This social historical study compares the two initiatives, their strategies, their approaches, and establishes why Lessing failed and Negwer succeeded.Less
At the outset of the twentieth century, the new noisy urban soundscape was a source of fascination and frustration. For the frustrated, for those attempting to escape the urban din, help would soon be at hand. Two men embarked on novel projects in 1908 to bring peace and quiet to the noisy urban world. Theodor Lessing’s Antilärmverein, a socio-political initiative to fight noise, would be short-lived, lasting just three years; yet Maximilian Negwer’s Ohropax earplugs would stand the test of time and offer relief to those frustrated by noise right into the twenty-first century. This social historical study compares the two initiatives, their strategies, their approaches, and establishes why Lessing failed and Negwer succeeded.
Lisa Siraganian
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199796557
- eISBN:
- 9780199932542
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199796557.003.0000
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This introduction defines key terms—air, framing, incorporation—to contextualize the debates about meaning, autonomy, and politics that structure the book, while also setting out a map of its ...
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This introduction defines key terms—air, framing, incorporation—to contextualize the debates about meaning, autonomy, and politics that structure the book, while also setting out a map of its chapters, complete with brief summaries. The chapter recounts how painterly discussions of collage enabled writers to think about the text’s frame as either excluding or including particulars of the reader’s world. Through pointed discussions of Wallace Stevens, Marcel Duchamp, William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein, and Michael Fried, we examine this new conception of aesthetic autonomy. The reader’s or viewer’s relation to the art object became a way to envision the political subject’s ideal relation to liberalism and the discourse of individual rights. In addition, this chapter incorporates discussions of theoretical texts by T. S. Eliot, Theodor Adorno, Peter Bürger, and others to distinguish the book’s account of modernism from canonical accounts that focus on post-structuralism and ideology critique.Less
This introduction defines key terms—air, framing, incorporation—to contextualize the debates about meaning, autonomy, and politics that structure the book, while also setting out a map of its chapters, complete with brief summaries. The chapter recounts how painterly discussions of collage enabled writers to think about the text’s frame as either excluding or including particulars of the reader’s world. Through pointed discussions of Wallace Stevens, Marcel Duchamp, William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein, and Michael Fried, we examine this new conception of aesthetic autonomy. The reader’s or viewer’s relation to the art object became a way to envision the political subject’s ideal relation to liberalism and the discourse of individual rights. In addition, this chapter incorporates discussions of theoretical texts by T. S. Eliot, Theodor Adorno, Peter Bürger, and others to distinguish the book’s account of modernism from canonical accounts that focus on post-structuralism and ideology critique.
Joseph M. Hassett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199582907
- eISBN:
- 9780191723216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582907.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
From the outset of Yeats's relationship with Florence Farr Emery, there was a powerful impetus to see her as a priestess of the White Goddess. On the night of 5 May 1890, Yeats was in the audience at ...
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From the outset of Yeats's relationship with Florence Farr Emery, there was a powerful impetus to see her as a priestess of the White Goddess. On the night of 5 May 1890, Yeats was in the audience at the clubhouse in Bedford Park to hear Farr, playing a priestess, summon the Egyptian Moon Goddess Selene. The occult studies she would soon undertake with Yeats in the Order of the Golden Dawn led her to identify the Wisdom Goddess as the essential source of artistic inspiration. Yeats and Farr became lovers, and she inspired his work in fundamentally important ways. Both as an actress in his plays, and as a reciter of verse accompanied by a stringed instrument called a psaltery, Farr embodied Yeats's dream of restoring poetry to its origin as an oral form of enchantment. Nonetheless, Farr could not maintain a status as Muse because she insisted upon being an equal, rather than a dominant dispenser of wisdom. Always independent, she pursued her own career as novelist, playwright, actress, translator and teacher. Nonetheless, Farr reclaimed her status as Muse after her death. Chapter 2 shows how the poem she wrote and sent to Yeats from her death‐bed gave birth to ‘All Souls' Night,’ that magnificent poem about the ability of the dead to inspire the living poet. A close reading of ‘All Souls' Night’ shows how it arose out of Yeats's and Farr's shared understanding of the work of Theodor Fechner on the role of the dead in the lives of the living.Less
From the outset of Yeats's relationship with Florence Farr Emery, there was a powerful impetus to see her as a priestess of the White Goddess. On the night of 5 May 1890, Yeats was in the audience at the clubhouse in Bedford Park to hear Farr, playing a priestess, summon the Egyptian Moon Goddess Selene. The occult studies she would soon undertake with Yeats in the Order of the Golden Dawn led her to identify the Wisdom Goddess as the essential source of artistic inspiration. Yeats and Farr became lovers, and she inspired his work in fundamentally important ways. Both as an actress in his plays, and as a reciter of verse accompanied by a stringed instrument called a psaltery, Farr embodied Yeats's dream of restoring poetry to its origin as an oral form of enchantment. Nonetheless, Farr could not maintain a status as Muse because she insisted upon being an equal, rather than a dominant dispenser of wisdom. Always independent, she pursued her own career as novelist, playwright, actress, translator and teacher. Nonetheless, Farr reclaimed her status as Muse after her death. Chapter 2 shows how the poem she wrote and sent to Yeats from her death‐bed gave birth to ‘All Souls' Night,’ that magnificent poem about the ability of the dead to inspire the living poet. A close reading of ‘All Souls' Night’ shows how it arose out of Yeats's and Farr's shared understanding of the work of Theodor Fechner on the role of the dead in the lives of the living.
Robert Eaglestone
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199265930
- eISBN:
- 9780191708596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199265930.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Beginning with an encounter described by Primo Levi, this chapter looks at philosophical attempts to explain why the perpetrators did as they did. It begins by analysing a debate over the very ...
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Beginning with an encounter described by Primo Levi, this chapter looks at philosophical attempts to explain why the perpetrators did as they did. It begins by analysing a debate over the very possibility of explanation, countering beliefs that no explanation is possible and that philosophers have no role in this process. It then turns to the philosophical problems involved in ‘refuting’ Nazism, using the work of Hilary Putnam. It then argues that Levinas understanding of ethics as first philosophy is very illuminating and resolves some of these philosophical difficulties, and is an effective response to some concerns of Adorno.Less
Beginning with an encounter described by Primo Levi, this chapter looks at philosophical attempts to explain why the perpetrators did as they did. It begins by analysing a debate over the very possibility of explanation, countering beliefs that no explanation is possible and that philosophers have no role in this process. It then turns to the philosophical problems involved in ‘refuting’ Nazism, using the work of Hilary Putnam. It then argues that Levinas understanding of ethics as first philosophy is very illuminating and resolves some of these philosophical difficulties, and is an effective response to some concerns of Adorno.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452369
- eISBN:
- 9780801469282
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452369.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory along with his other writings on aesthetics in light of the unexpected return of the aesthetic to today's cultural debates. Is Adorno's ...
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This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory along with his other writings on aesthetics in light of the unexpected return of the aesthetic to today's cultural debates. Is Adorno's aesthetic theory still relevant today? This question is answered with an emphatic yes. As the book shows, a careful reading of the work exposes different questions and arguments today than it did in the past. Over the years Adorno's concern over the fate of art in a late capitalist society has met with everything from suspicion to indifference. In part this could be explained by relative unfamiliarity with the German dialectical tradition in North America. Today's debate is better informed, more multifaceted, and further removed from the immediate aftermath of the Cold War and of the shadow of postmodernism. Adorno's insistence on the radical autonomy of art has much to offer contemporary discussions of art and the aesthetic in search of new responses to the pervasive effects of a neoliberal art market and culture industry. The book shows how radically transformative Adorno's ideas have been and how thoroughly they have shaped current discussions in aesthetics. Among the topics considered are the role of art in modernism and postmodernism, the truth claims of artworks, the function of the ugly in modern artworks, the precarious value of the literary tradition, and the surprising significance of realism for Adorno.Less
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory along with his other writings on aesthetics in light of the unexpected return of the aesthetic to today's cultural debates. Is Adorno's aesthetic theory still relevant today? This question is answered with an emphatic yes. As the book shows, a careful reading of the work exposes different questions and arguments today than it did in the past. Over the years Adorno's concern over the fate of art in a late capitalist society has met with everything from suspicion to indifference. In part this could be explained by relative unfamiliarity with the German dialectical tradition in North America. Today's debate is better informed, more multifaceted, and further removed from the immediate aftermath of the Cold War and of the shadow of postmodernism. Adorno's insistence on the radical autonomy of art has much to offer contemporary discussions of art and the aesthetic in search of new responses to the pervasive effects of a neoliberal art market and culture industry. The book shows how radically transformative Adorno's ideas have been and how thoroughly they have shaped current discussions in aesthetics. Among the topics considered are the role of art in modernism and postmodernism, the truth claims of artworks, the function of the ugly in modern artworks, the precarious value of the literary tradition, and the surprising significance of realism for Adorno.
