The fleeting promise of art : Adorno's aesthetic theory revisited

197 Pages·2013·1.95 MB·English

by  Adorno

The Fleeting Promise of Art

The Fleeting Promise of Art
Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory Revisited
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University
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First published 2013 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2013
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hohendahl, Peter Uwe, author.
The fl eeting promise of art : Adorno’s aesthetic theory revisited / Peter
Uwe Hohendahl.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-5236-9 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8014-7898-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Adorno, Theodor W., 1903–1969—Aesthetics. 2. Aesthetics,
German—20th century. I. Title.
B3199.A34H633 2013
111'.85092—dc23 2013009769
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Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
Part I
1. Human Freedom and the Autonomy of Art:
The Legacy of Kant 33
2. The Ephemeral and the Absolute: The Truth
Content of Art 57
3. Aesthetic Violence: The Concepts of the Ugly
and Primitive 79
Part II
4. Reality, Realism, and Representation 103
5. A Precarious Balance: Rereading German Classicism 129
vi Contents
Epilogue 152
Notes 167
Index 175
Acknowledgments
This book has a long and complex history. It grew out of individual
but related projects focused on Adorno’s aesthetic theory and literary crit-
icism. Some of them were originally conceived as more specifi c investiga-
tions or interventions, written either as essays or book chapters. Chapters
1, 2, 3, and 5 were previously published in somewhat different form.
Part of chapter 1 was published in The Philosophical Forum (43:3, Fall
2012). Chapter 2 fi rst appeared in a volume edited by Gerhard Richter,
Language without Soil: Adorno and Late Philosophical Modernity (Fordham
University Press, 2010). A version of chapter 3 was originally published in
Cultural Critique (60, Spring 2005), and chapter 5 fi rst appeared in New
Literary History (42:1, 2011).
This project could not have been undertaken and completed without
encouragement from colleagues and friends. I want to thank Rita Felsky,
Gerhard Richter, and the late Jochen Schulte-Sasse for reading drafts of
various chapters and providing generous critical feedback. While repeated
conversations with Peter Gilgen and Andrew Chignell on problems of
viii Acknowledgments
aesthetics encouraged me to put Adorno’s theory in the larger context of
contemporary philosophy, frequent discussions with Paul Fleming in-
spired me to rethink the nature and relevance of Adorno’s literary criti-
cism. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to everyone I worked with
at Cornell University Press for their enthusiastic and sustained support. In
particular, Peter Potter’s advice and assistance have been invaluable.
Abbreviations
Ä Theodor W. Adorno. Ästhetik (1958/59): Nachgelassene Schriften, Ab-
teilung IV: Vorlesungen, vol. 3. Edited by Erhard Ortland. Frank-
furt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2009.
ÄT T heodor W. Adorno. Ästhetische Theorie. Edited by Gretel Adorno
and Rolf Tiedemann. 4th ed. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980.
AT T heodor W. Adorno. Aesthetic Theory. Translated and edited by
R obert Hullot-Kentor. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1997.
BT F riedrich Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Trans-
lated by Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1999.
CJ I mmanuel Kant. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Edited by Paul
Guyer. Translated by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.