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.
Seyla Benhabib
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691167251
- eISBN:
- 9780691184234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691167251.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter examines the subterranean affinities between Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, two of the most famous exiles of the last century, through the so-called “Benjaminian moment” present in ...
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This chapter examines the subterranean affinities between Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, two of the most famous exiles of the last century, through the so-called “Benjaminian moment” present in their work. It is widely known that any consideration of Arendt and Adorno as thinkers who share intellectual affinities is likely to be thwarted by the profound dislike that Arendt seems to harbor toward Adorno. However, such psychological attitudes and personal animosities cannot guide the evaluations of a thinker's work. This is particularly true in the case of Arendt and Adorno, who both shared a profound sense that one must learn to think anew, beyond the traditional schools of philosophy and methodology—a concept that will be referred to as their Benjaminian moment.Less
This chapter examines the subterranean affinities between Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, two of the most famous exiles of the last century, through the so-called “Benjaminian moment” present in their work. It is widely known that any consideration of Arendt and Adorno as thinkers who share intellectual affinities is likely to be thwarted by the profound dislike that Arendt seems to harbor toward Adorno. However, such psychological attitudes and personal animosities cannot guide the evaluations of a thinker's work. This is particularly true in the case of Arendt and Adorno, who both shared a profound sense that one must learn to think anew, beyond the traditional schools of philosophy and methodology—a concept that will be referred to as their Benjaminian moment.
David Goodman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195394085
- eISBN:
- 9780199894383
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394085.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
The chapter explores why there was so much classical music on mainstream 1930s American radio, and the meanings and values that broadcast classical music represented. Radio's engagement with ...
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The chapter explores why there was so much classical music on mainstream 1930s American radio, and the meanings and values that broadcast classical music represented. Radio's engagement with classical music emphasized the added effort needed to turn listening into music appreciation. Local performers, amateurs talking about their musical hobby, broadcast music lessons, composition competitions and play-along programs, all demonstrated why broadcast classical music was so important a part of the civic paradigm. NBC's hiring of Arturo Toscanini to conduct its new NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938 exemplified mainstream commercial radio's well-publicized commitment to, and sacralization of, classical music. The US radio networks' high valuing of classical music led them to foster close relationships with European and especially German broadcasters well into the fascist era. The strictures of émigré German intellectual Theodor Adorno about broadcast classical music show that he was acutely aware of classical music's strategic importance to American broadcasters.Less
The chapter explores why there was so much classical music on mainstream 1930s American radio, and the meanings and values that broadcast classical music represented. Radio's engagement with classical music emphasized the added effort needed to turn listening into music appreciation. Local performers, amateurs talking about their musical hobby, broadcast music lessons, composition competitions and play-along programs, all demonstrated why broadcast classical music was so important a part of the civic paradigm. NBC's hiring of Arturo Toscanini to conduct its new NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938 exemplified mainstream commercial radio's well-publicized commitment to, and sacralization of, classical music. The US radio networks' high valuing of classical music led them to foster close relationships with European and especially German broadcasters well into the fascist era. The strictures of émigré German intellectual Theodor Adorno about broadcast classical music show that he was acutely aware of classical music's strategic importance to American broadcasters.
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’.
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.
Yeasemin Yildiz
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823241309
- eISBN:
- 9780823241347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823241309.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses words of foreign derivation (Fremdwörter) as constituting a form of “internal multilingualism,” which writers can potentially mobilize against the monolingual paradigm. It ...
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This chapter discusses words of foreign derivation (Fremdwörter) as constituting a form of “internal multilingualism,” which writers can potentially mobilize against the monolingual paradigm. It details the highly charged discourse on these words from the Early Modern period to the present, showing how the changing attributes of Fremdwörter and the general shape of language purism relate to particular political and cultural constellations. At the center of the chapter are Theodor W. Adorno's writings on Fremdwörter, from the early essay “On the Use of Foreign Derived Words,” and passages in Minima Moralia—where he calls them “the Jews of language”—to his 1959 essay “Words from Abroad.” The analysis charts the changes in Adorno's defense of these words and shows how he redefines his understanding of the (post-Holocaust) German language in the process, contrasting it with Martin Heidegger's. By investigating both Adorno's statements about Fremdwörter and his use of them in his writing, the chapter demonstrates how the interplay between “native” and “foreign-derived” words is part of his dialectical mode of writing.Less
This chapter discusses words of foreign derivation (Fremdwörter) as constituting a form of “internal multilingualism,” which writers can potentially mobilize against the monolingual paradigm. It details the highly charged discourse on these words from the Early Modern period to the present, showing how the changing attributes of Fremdwörter and the general shape of language purism relate to particular political and cultural constellations. At the center of the chapter are Theodor W. Adorno's writings on Fremdwörter, from the early essay “On the Use of Foreign Derived Words,” and passages in Minima Moralia—where he calls them “the Jews of language”—to his 1959 essay “Words from Abroad.” The analysis charts the changes in Adorno's defense of these words and shows how he redefines his understanding of the (post-Holocaust) German language in the process, contrasting it with Martin Heidegger's. By investigating both Adorno's statements about Fremdwörter and his use of them in his writing, the chapter demonstrates how the interplay between “native” and “foreign-derived” words is part of his dialectical mode of writing.
Benjamin Y. Fong
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231176682
- eISBN:
- 9780231542616
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231176682.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Employs the drive theory developed in the first three chapters toward a reinterpretation of the culture industry thesis of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.
Employs the drive theory developed in the first three chapters toward a reinterpretation of the culture industry thesis of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.
Tyrus Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748640188
- eISBN:
- 9781474400862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640188.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
After a general survey of Adorno’s wide-ranging and voluminous work, this chapter focuses on Adorno’s strongly-formulated defense of critical modernism against culture industry, especially in music, ...
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After a general survey of Adorno’s wide-ranging and voluminous work, this chapter focuses on Adorno’s strongly-formulated defense of critical modernism against culture industry, especially in music, but also in literature and other arts. Close attention is given to Adorno’s writings on Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, and post-WWII “New Music.”Less
After a general survey of Adorno’s wide-ranging and voluminous work, this chapter focuses on Adorno’s strongly-formulated defense of critical modernism against culture industry, especially in music, but also in literature and other arts. Close attention is given to Adorno’s writings on Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, and post-WWII “New Music.”
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.
Neil Levi
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823255061
- eISBN:
- 9780823260867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823255061.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines a central motif in Frankfurt School theorist Theodor W. Adorno's postwar, post-Holocaust modernism: his commitment to the biblical Second Commandment's prohibition of images. ...
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This chapter examines a central motif in Frankfurt School theorist Theodor W. Adorno's postwar, post-Holocaust modernism: his commitment to the biblical Second Commandment's prohibition of images. Against the received idea that Adorno's commitment to the prohibition represents his identification with some kind of Jewish identity, it is argued that Adorno invokes the prohibition precisely to prevent such identitarian thinking. The prohibition might connect the Jews and modernism, but it neither makes modernism Jewish nor Jews modernists. What it does clearly make them, in Adorno's eyes, is subject to unintended, unwanted, but predictable forms of projection and misinterpretation. Where much of French postwar thought wants simply to reverse the valences and fantasies of the recent past, Adorno's reflections on the projective reaction to the Second Commandment show that he seeks instead, via an inoculatory repetition of those valences and fantasies, to confront and work through them.Less
This chapter examines a central motif in Frankfurt School theorist Theodor W. Adorno's postwar, post-Holocaust modernism: his commitment to the biblical Second Commandment's prohibition of images. Against the received idea that Adorno's commitment to the prohibition represents his identification with some kind of Jewish identity, it is argued that Adorno invokes the prohibition precisely to prevent such identitarian thinking. The prohibition might connect the Jews and modernism, but it neither makes modernism Jewish nor Jews modernists. What it does clearly make them, in Adorno's eyes, is subject to unintended, unwanted, but predictable forms of projection and misinterpretation. Where much of French postwar thought wants simply to reverse the valences and fantasies of the recent past, Adorno's reflections on the projective reaction to the Second Commandment show that he seeks instead, via an inoculatory repetition of those valences and fantasies, to confront and work through them.
Adrian Daub
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520296824
- eISBN:
- 9780520969155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520296824.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This introductory chapter provides the necessary context for the two protagonists (Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann), as well as the leading supporting figure (Theodor Adorno). It aims to guide ...
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This introductory chapter provides the necessary context for the two protagonists (Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann), as well as the leading supporting figure (Theodor Adorno). It aims to guide readers through the thicket of acquaintances, old grudges and new anxieties, problems of politics and aesthetics that resonate—sometimes faintly, sometimes clearly—between the lines in the essays and exchanges gathered in this volume. These are, after all, one reason scholars, students, and lay readers have returned to the Faustus controversy time and time again. The other is that rarely has a literary controversy spoken so directly to a unique place and time: Faustus could not have been written, and Faustus could not have generated the controversy that it did, outside of the highly peculiar setting of Southern California during the Second World War.Less
This introductory chapter provides the necessary context for the two protagonists (Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann), as well as the leading supporting figure (Theodor Adorno). It aims to guide readers through the thicket of acquaintances, old grudges and new anxieties, problems of politics and aesthetics that resonate—sometimes faintly, sometimes clearly—between the lines in the essays and exchanges gathered in this volume. These are, after all, one reason scholars, students, and lay readers have returned to the Faustus controversy time and time again. The other is that rarely has a literary controversy spoken so directly to a unique place and time: Faustus could not have been written, and Faustus could not have generated the controversy that it did, outside of the highly peculiar setting of Southern California during the Second World War.
Robyn Marasco
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231168663
- eISBN:
- 9780231538893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231168663.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter argues that Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy about despair has been poorly understood by his critics, one of them being Jürgen Habermas. He argued that Adorno betrayed the “rational ...
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This chapter argues that Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy about despair has been poorly understood by his critics, one of them being Jürgen Habermas. He argued that Adorno betrayed the “rational content of cultural modernity” to an unyielding logic of domination, resulting in a critique of Enlightenment without “any dynamism upon which critique could base its hope.” For Habermas, despair should be considered as the philosophical problem that originated in a bad philosophy (which starts with Nietzsche) that was resolved with good philosophy (which starts with Kant). However, in expressing this notion, Habermas treated critical philosophy as a rescue operation. This treatment may cause the objective history of despair to fall into obscurity, and may compel the passions to give way to the primacy of communicative reason.Less
This chapter argues that Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy about despair has been poorly understood by his critics, one of them being Jürgen Habermas. He argued that Adorno betrayed the “rational content of cultural modernity” to an unyielding logic of domination, resulting in a critique of Enlightenment without “any dynamism upon which critique could base its hope.” For Habermas, despair should be considered as the philosophical problem that originated in a bad philosophy (which starts with Nietzsche) that was resolved with good philosophy (which starts with Kant). However, in expressing this notion, Habermas treated critical philosophy as a rescue operation. This treatment may cause the objective history of despair to fall into obscurity, and may compel the passions to give way to the primacy of communicative reason.
Ben Hutchinson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198767695
- eISBN:
- 9780191821578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198767695.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Chapter 14 concentrates on arguably the most influential twentieth-century theorist of lateness: Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s views on lateness are characteristically subtle and sophisticated, and relate ...
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Chapter 14 concentrates on arguably the most influential twentieth-century theorist of lateness: Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s views on lateness are characteristically subtle and sophisticated, and relate in complex ways to his views on modernity more broadly. If the relationship between the aesthetic and late modernity forms the defining focus of his thought, the relationship between the late aesthetic and modernity offers a microcosm of this thought. Beginning from his seminal four-page essay ‘On Beethoven’s Late Style’, the chapter proceeds to view lateness as a red thread running throughout Adorno’s thought, from the early work on late style in the 1930s to the reflections on the vexed status of culture after the Holocaust in the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, the chapter also considers Adorno’s theorization of Kafka, Beckett, and Thomas Mann as exemplary writers of ‘late’ modernity, arguing that lateness ultimately emerges from this theorization as a ‘truly European language’.Less
Chapter 14 concentrates on arguably the most influential twentieth-century theorist of lateness: Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s views on lateness are characteristically subtle and sophisticated, and relate in complex ways to his views on modernity more broadly. If the relationship between the aesthetic and late modernity forms the defining focus of his thought, the relationship between the late aesthetic and modernity offers a microcosm of this thought. Beginning from his seminal four-page essay ‘On Beethoven’s Late Style’, the chapter proceeds to view lateness as a red thread running throughout Adorno’s thought, from the early work on late style in the 1930s to the reflections on the vexed status of culture after the Holocaust in the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, the chapter also considers Adorno’s theorization of Kafka, Beckett, and Thomas Mann as exemplary writers of ‘late’ modernity, arguing that lateness ultimately emerges from this theorization as a ‘truly European language’.
Jaimey Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231263
- eISBN:
- 9780823235360
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823231263.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter refutes the long-standing prejudice that Theodor W. Adorno offered no concrete suggestions capable of bridging theory and praxis by scrutinizing the philosopher's ...
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This chapter refutes the long-standing prejudice that Theodor W. Adorno offered no concrete suggestions capable of bridging theory and praxis by scrutinizing the philosopher's contributions to Germany's educational reforms following World War II. The last lines of the introduction that Adorno added to “The Meaning of ‘Working through the Past’” when he gave the lecture again in 1962 suggest, like the original questions and answers to the lecture, that his mind was very much on the ethics suggested by his lecture, on the norms and praxis it unfolded, even if skeptically. As Adorno's best-known work about education, “Education after Auschwitz” commences with the conceptual groundwork laid in “Working through the Past”, not so much by merely beginning where the latter essay leaves off, but—as “Working through the Past” did with “Democratization”–by extracting specific elements from it and subsequently elaborating them in revealingly different directions.Less
This chapter refutes the long-standing prejudice that Theodor W. Adorno offered no concrete suggestions capable of bridging theory and praxis by scrutinizing the philosopher's contributions to Germany's educational reforms following World War II. The last lines of the introduction that Adorno added to “The Meaning of ‘Working through the Past’” when he gave the lecture again in 1962 suggest, like the original questions and answers to the lecture, that his mind was very much on the ethics suggested by his lecture, on the norms and praxis it unfolded, even if skeptically. As Adorno's best-known work about education, “Education after Auschwitz” commences with the conceptual groundwork laid in “Working through the Past”, not so much by merely beginning where the latter essay leaves off, but—as “Working through the Past” did with “Democratization”–by extracting specific elements from it and subsequently elaborating them in revealingly different directions.
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.
Arthur Versluis
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195306378
- eISBN:
- 9780199850914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306378.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the works of German sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno in relation to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It suggests that irrationalism was a significant theme of ...
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This chapter examines the works of German sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno in relation to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It suggests that irrationalism was a significant theme of Adorno's works, especially as manifested in what he termed the occult or occultism. It explains that Adorno's attacks on what he believed to be occultism represent an anti-esotericism of the left that is almost a mirror reflection of the Inquisitorial tendency that we often see operating on the political right. He believed that Nazism represented an eruption of antirational or irrational forces in society, which he believed to the contributing conditions for anti-Semitism and Nazi authoritarianism.Less
This chapter examines the works of German sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno in relation to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It suggests that irrationalism was a significant theme of Adorno's works, especially as manifested in what he termed the occult or occultism. It explains that Adorno's attacks on what he believed to be occultism represent an anti-esotericism of the left that is almost a mirror reflection of the Inquisitorial tendency that we often see operating on the political right. He believed that Nazism represented an eruption of antirational or irrational forces in society, which he believed to the contributing conditions for anti-Semitism and Nazi authoritarianism.
David Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282388
- eISBN:
- 9780823284948
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282388.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
“The Aesthetic Taboo” concerns the place of primitive anthropology in the aesthetic theory of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It traces the influence of Freud’s Totem and Taboo through their ...
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“The Aesthetic Taboo” concerns the place of primitive anthropology in the aesthetic theory of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It traces the influence of Freud’s Totem and Taboo through their work, in the concepts myth, magic, and aura. Neither thinker ever manages to escape the historical narrative of aesthetics: the transition from a state of necessity that defines the Savage as pathological subject, through a state of domination to an ideal state of freedom. Adorno and Benjamin continue to think within the traditions of Kant and Schiller. Yet in Aesthetic Theory magic images the sensuous remnant in the artwork that withstands rationalization. This “pathological” moment restores to the aesthetic its foundations in pleasure and pain and demands the destruction of the racial regime of representation. Its analogy with the Subaltern suggests another conception of life in common, predicated on the pains and pleasures of the pathological subject.Less
“The Aesthetic Taboo” concerns the place of primitive anthropology in the aesthetic theory of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It traces the influence of Freud’s Totem and Taboo through their work, in the concepts myth, magic, and aura. Neither thinker ever manages to escape the historical narrative of aesthetics: the transition from a state of necessity that defines the Savage as pathological subject, through a state of domination to an ideal state of freedom. Adorno and Benjamin continue to think within the traditions of Kant and Schiller. Yet in Aesthetic Theory magic images the sensuous remnant in the artwork that withstands rationalization. This “pathological” moment restores to the aesthetic its foundations in pleasure and pain and demands the destruction of the racial regime of representation. Its analogy with the Subaltern suggests another conception of life in common, predicated on the pains and pleasures of the pathological subject.
Ehrhard Bahr
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520251281
- eISBN:
- 9780520933804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520251281.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter focuses on the concept of the “culture industry,” as defined in Dialectic of Enlightenment, and on Theodor W. Adorno's Philosophy of Modern Music of 1949 and his late Aesthetic Theory of ...
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This chapter focuses on the concept of the “culture industry,” as defined in Dialectic of Enlightenment, and on Theodor W. Adorno's Philosophy of Modern Music of 1949 and his late Aesthetic Theory of 1970. The process of enlightenment had proved both progressive and regressive, and culminated in a crisis around 1933 that needed not only political action to decide its outcome, but also philosophical reflection to chart the future course of enlightenment. The chapter shows how Adorno, in his book on Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, integrated the development of modern music into the historical process and identified resistance to society as the function of art. Later in his aesthetics, Adorno added the concept of art as historical record and the permanent language of human suffering. As a close reading of the chapter “The Culture Industry” shows, Max Horkheimer and Adorno suggest similarities between Adolf Hitler and Hollywood, or between German national socialism and American mass culture.Less
This chapter focuses on the concept of the “culture industry,” as defined in Dialectic of Enlightenment, and on Theodor W. Adorno's Philosophy of Modern Music of 1949 and his late Aesthetic Theory of 1970. The process of enlightenment had proved both progressive and regressive, and culminated in a crisis around 1933 that needed not only political action to decide its outcome, but also philosophical reflection to chart the future course of enlightenment. The chapter shows how Adorno, in his book on Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, integrated the development of modern music into the historical process and identified resistance to society as the function of art. Later in his aesthetics, Adorno added the concept of art as historical record and the permanent language of human suffering. As a close reading of the chapter “The Culture Industry” shows, Max Horkheimer and Adorno suggest similarities between Adolf Hitler and Hollywood, or between German national socialism and American mass culture.
Martin Shuster
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226155487
- eISBN:
- 9780226155517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226155517.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter is the cornerstone of the book and accomplishes four large tasks. First, it elaborates Adorno’s theory of practical reason, including his notion of ‘the addendum,’ his philosophy of ...
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This chapter is the cornerstone of the book and accomplishes four large tasks. First, it elaborates Adorno’s theory of practical reason, including his notion of ‘the addendum,’ his philosophy of action, and his ethical theory. Second, it puts Adorno into a complex dialogue with Stanley Cavell, showing how their philosophies of language and also their ethical views intersect. Third, it elaborates what it means to be autonomous ‘after Auschwitz,’ showing the moral stakes of such an environment. Fourth, and finally, it puts Adorno’s theory of morality and action into dialogue with figures like Anscombe, Kant, and Davidson, amongst others.Less
This chapter is the cornerstone of the book and accomplishes four large tasks. First, it elaborates Adorno’s theory of practical reason, including his notion of ‘the addendum,’ his philosophy of action, and his ethical theory. Second, it puts Adorno into a complex dialogue with Stanley Cavell, showing how their philosophies of language and also their ethical views intersect. Third, it elaborates what it means to be autonomous ‘after Auschwitz,’ showing the moral stakes of such an environment. Fourth, and finally, it puts Adorno’s theory of morality and action into dialogue with figures like Anscombe, Kant, and Davidson, amongst others.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452369
- eISBN:
- 9780801469282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452369.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, along with his other writings, to see if his ideas are still relevant today. First published in 1970, Aesthetic Theory raises a number of ...
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This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, along with his other writings, to see if his ideas are still relevant today. First published in 1970, Aesthetic Theory raises a number of questions, such as the emphasis on the special status of the artwork for which Adorno uses the term “autonomy.” The new impulses in the contemporary discussion, readily associated with names such as Elaine Scarry and Peter de Bolla, require a rereading of Aesthetic Theory. This book focuses on the challenge to Adorno's Aesthetic Theory that comes today from different directions. It explores how the concept of aesthetic experience in Aesthetic Theory compares to the ideas of Scarry and de Bolla, and whether one can argue for the universal nature of aesthetic experience or universal aesthetic values and include Adorno in such an argument. Part I considers theoretical questions and approaches Aesthetic Theory from different perspectives. Part II discusses Adorno's literary criticism, and especially his engagement with specific works, authors, and historical periods.Less
This book reexamines Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, along with his other writings, to see if his ideas are still relevant today. First published in 1970, Aesthetic Theory raises a number of questions, such as the emphasis on the special status of the artwork for which Adorno uses the term “autonomy.” The new impulses in the contemporary discussion, readily associated with names such as Elaine Scarry and Peter de Bolla, require a rereading of Aesthetic Theory. This book focuses on the challenge to Adorno's Aesthetic Theory that comes today from different directions. It explores how the concept of aesthetic experience in Aesthetic Theory compares to the ideas of Scarry and de Bolla, and whether one can argue for the universal nature of aesthetic experience or universal aesthetic values and include Adorno in such an argument. Part I considers theoretical questions and approaches Aesthetic Theory from different perspectives. Part II discusses Adorno's literary criticism, and especially his engagement with specific works, authors, and historical periods.
