Adorno's pessimism

[Rauno Huttunen]

On Fri, 10 May 1996, Jeffrey wrote:

> I've really just started studying Adorno, but from what I've read in
> Aesthetic Theory I simply cannot get around his pessimism.  All protest
> seems mired by its material and human origins.  I doubt this inescapability
> is unique to his aesthetics.  Is there any sense of real protest in Adorno?
> How will the end of the capitalist epoch come about if protest inevitably
> turns into kitsch?  Very open questions...
>
> jeffrey
>
I very much agree what Jeffrey said. Adorno's and Horkheimer's book
Dialektik der Aufklärung was turning point in early crirical theory and
then also the meaning of "critique" altered from the critique of
capitalism to the critique of culture in general. Adorno continue this
line  of critique in his later works, and one might ask "is there any
sense of real protest in Adorno". Adorno thinks that aesthetic sphere is
some kind of "place of safety" for rebellious and critical mind, but what
sort of protest and critique is that? It souns more like escapism.


The critique of capitalism by early critical theory might nowdays sounds
old fashioned, but surely Adorno's critique of culture and enlightenment
is too weak. The question is same then and now: What is the meaning of
qritique and protest in critical theory?


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  Rauno Huttunen
  University of Jyväskylä			http://www.jyu.fi/~rakahu
  Department of Social Sciences			e-mail rakahu@tukki.jyu.fi
  and Philosophy				puh    358 41 602 822
  POB 35, 40351 Jyväskylä, Finland		fax    358 41 602 821
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