Adorno and art : aesthetic theory contra critical theory / James Hellings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hellings, James.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969. Ästhetik (1958/59)--English.

Adorno, Theodor W.

Art and philosophy.

Physical Description:

199 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

If the advancement toward the administered world is nearing completion, if spectacularised societies, industrialised cultures, and reified consciousness have taken control, then Adorno and Art shows how radical and revolutionary Adorno's aesthetic theory of art's double character remains, and how complex, imaginative, and oppositional forms of art offer, perhaps, the best hope for overcoming damaged life. The caricatures of Adorno, his politics and his aesthetics, are well-known errors of judgement-widely repeated both by the academy and by the Left. Adorno's aesthetics has been accused of failing to keep pace with progressive artistic practices and for being socio-politically aloof. Despite the persistence of these caricatures, this book shows how significant images and themes in Adorno's theory remain relevant to the current situation of art, aesthetics, and politics. The Adorno on show in this volume was no bourgeois mandarin, no arrogant aesthete, no esoteric mystic, no melancholy pessimist, and no academic expert holed up in the proverbial ivory tower. Book jacket.

Contents:

Anti-introduction: Paint it Black

PART I: MESSAGES IN A BOTTLE: AESTHETIC THEORY CONTRA CRITICAL THEORY

1. Introduction

2. Critical Messages in a Bottle and Restoration

3. Excursus I: The Prevalence of a View: Being Uncompromisingly Critical at the Grand Hotel Abyss

4. Excursus II: The Prevalence of a View: 'Don't participate:' The Politics of Social Praxis

5. Aesthetic Messages in a Bottle and Progress

6. Messages in a Bottle as the Work of Art

PART II: ART ITSELF THINKS: THE POLITICS OF AESTHETIC (MIS-)EDUCATION

7. Introduction

8. The Politics of Artistic Practice: 'What artist isn't socially engaged?'

9. The Politics of Spectatorship: Shocking Spectators

10. The Politics of Aesthetic (Mis-)Education

11. Contemporary Art Itself Thinking: Making the Invisible Visible?

Anti-conclusion: The Russian Ending.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230347885

0230347886

OCLC:

870285360