Rethinking T.W. Adorno (4)

[Ralph Dumain]

Her is what my scribbled notes say.  Sorry I can't do better.

Christine Kelley relates her experience of teaching Adorno to working class 
students.  She is not an Adorno scholar, is more into Habermas.  "The 
Culture Industry Revisited" is used as a pedagogical tool in relation to 
her popular course on the politics of the media.  She recounts her 
experiences at two very different colleges.  (Sources: Neil Postman's 
AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH, Habermas on public sphere, Adorno.  Postman: 
epistemology.  form & content. technological dominance.  Habermas: media 
forces.)

The prof narrates; the students listen.  The students then react, debate, 
fight with Adorno.  Their reaction is ambiguous, defensive.  They stand in 
defiance of Adorno's conclusions,  though they like Adorno's indictment of 
the culture industry (with the consumer as object).  They are connoisseurs 
of popular culture.  They object to (the notion of?) being swindled, 
desiring deception, being powerless.

They object to the notion that nowhere from within the culture industry is 
redemption possible, that artistic autonomy is impossible.  They maintain 
that dissent and popular culture are compatible.

The students should be offended; that leads to critical 
awareness.  Concrete examples are irrelevant[?].