Konfiguration

[Erik Steinskog]

Henk Borgdorff wrote:

> L.s.,
>
> The concept *Konfiguration* plays a central role in Adorno's negative
> dialectic.
> I thought that this concept was also used in the Schoenberg essay in
> the
> *Philosophie der neuen Musik*, but I can't find the place.
> Does anyone know the paragraph in which the concept is used?

The concept *Konfiguration* is used already in the "Einleitung" to
"Philosophie der neuen Musik", where Adorno quotes from Walter
Benjamin's "Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels", the
"Erkenntnistheoretische Vorrede".
It is the chapter in "Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels" where
Benjamin writes about the extremes and their relationship to the idea;
the chapter on the "Monadologie" (in Benjamin's Gesammelte Schriften,
Bd. 1, page 227). Also important for Benjamin's notion is an earlier
chapter entitled "Idee als Konfiguration". In Benjamin's thought this
concept *Konfiguration* is closely connected with one of his most
important metaphors, the "Konstellation", that is the way stars is
connected to each other, as well as the way ideas or concepts are.
I think that when Adorno begins his "Einleitung" to the "Philsophie der
neuen Musik" with this quote of Benjamin, he is showing where this
concept came from. That it also develops in Adorno's thoughts goes
without saying. Just see how important the concept is in Adornos
"Ästhetische Theorie".

---
Erik Steinskog
Doctorate student
Department of Musicology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU
N-7055 Dragvoll
Ph: + 47 / 73 59 78 36
Fax: + 47 / 73 59 65 88
E-mail: erik.steinskog@hf.ntnu.no