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Consciousness-Raising or Redemptive Criticism: The Contemporaneity of Walter Benjamin
Author(s): Jrgen Habermas, Philip Brewster and Carl Howard BuchnerSource: New German Critique, No. 17, Special Walter Benjamin Issue (Spring, 1979), pp. 30-59Published by: New German CritiqueStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/488008.
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2/31
Consciousness-Raising
r
Redemptive
Criticism
The
Contemporaneity
f
WalterBenjamin*
by
Jiirgen
abermas
Even
in
a trivial ense
Benjamin
has
contemporary
elevance:
pinions
come into conflict
oday
wheneverhis name
comes
up.
Yet the
eruptive
impactBenjamin's writings ave had inthe FederalRepublicofGermany
during
the shorttime
since their
publication'
has
resulted
n
battle ines
being
drawnwhichwere
already
prefigured
n
Benjamin's
biography.
n
the
course
of
Benjamin's
life he constellationmade
up by
Gershom
cholem,
Theodor
W. Adorno and Bertolt
Brecht
was
decisive
-
so too
was his
youthful
ependence
on
the school
reformer ustav
Wyneken,
nd
later,
his
relationship
withthe
surrealists.
oday,
his
closest
friend
nd
mentor
Scholem
assumes
the
role of
unpolemical,preeminent,
nd
completely
uncompromising
dvocate
of that
dimension
n
Benjamin partial
to
the
traditions fJewish
mysticism.2
Adorno Benjamin'sheir, ritical artner,
and
forerunner
ll in
one
-
not
only
introducedthe
first
wave
of
posthumousBenjamin
reception,
ut eft n
indelible
tamp
n
it.:'
ince the
*"Bewusstmachende
der
rettendeKritik Die
Aktualittit
Walter
Benjamins,"
in
Zur
Aktualitiit
Walter
enjarnins
Frankfurt
m
Main,
1972),
pp.
175-223;
eprinted
n
Kultur
nd
Kritik
Frankfurt
m
Main,
1973),
pp.
302-344.
Published
bypermission
f
Suhrkamp
Verlag
and
Jurgen
Habermas.
'Schriften, d. T.W. Adorno and Gretel Adorno (Frankfurtm Main, 1955). Existing
English
translations f
Benjamin's
works
have been used
wherever
ossible
nd
reformelated
when
necessary.
The
following
bbreviations
have been
used: Br.
-
Briefe,
d.
Gershom
Scholem and T.W.
Adorno
(Frankfurt,
966);
Fuchs
-
"Eduard
Fuchs,
Collector and
Historian,"
n
New
German
Critique, (Spring
1975),
27-58;
G.S.
-
Gesammelte
chriften,
d.
Rolf
Tiedemann and
Hermann
SchweppenhLiuser
Frankfurt
m
Main,
1972-),
I-IV;
I.
Illuminations,
d.
Hannah Arendt
N.Y., 1969);
NLR
-
Correspondence
ith
enjamin,"
n
New
Left
Review,
81
(Sept.-Oct.
1972),
55-80;
0.
-
The
Originof
German
Tragic
Drama
(London, 1977);
R.
-
Reflections,
d.
Peter
Demetz
N.Y.,
1978).
The
following
ranslations
have
also been
consulted:
Charles
Baudelaire
London,
1973);
Understanding
recht
London,
1973).
'G. Scholem, "Walter Benjamin," "WalterBenjaminand His Angel," "Two Letters o
Walter
Benjamin,"
in
Jews and
Judaism n
Crisis
N.Y.,
1976).
By
the
same
author: The
Messianic
Idea
in
Judaism
1971);
Major
Trends
n
Jewish
Mysticism
1961).
The
latter
s
dedicated to
the
memory
f
Walter
Benjamin
trans.
'T.W.
Adorno,
"A
Portrait f
Walter
Benjamin,"
in
Prisms
London,
1967),
pp.
229-41.
The
abbreviation
AGS has
been
used
for
Adorno's
Gesammelte
chriften,
d. Rolf
Tiedemann
(Frankfurt
m
Main,
1970)-),
23
vols.
30
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3/31
Consciousness-Raising
1
death
of
Peter
Szondi
(who
undoubtedly
ouldhave stood
here
today
n
my
place),
Adorno's
position
has
been
maintained
primarily
y Benjamin's
editors,TiedemannandSchweppenhiuser.4rechtmusthave functioneds
a sortof
reality
rinciple
or
Benjamin,
for
t
was underhis nfluence hat
Benjamin
was
led
to break
with
the esoteric lementof his
style
nd his
thought.
ollowing
Brecht's
ead,
Marxist
heorist f art uch as
Hildegard
Brenner,
Helmut Lethen and Michael
Scharang
are
today
able to
shift
Benjamin's
late
work
decisively
nto
the
perspective
f
class
struggle.5
Gustav
Wyneken
was
at first
model for
Benjamin's
activity
n
the "Free
School
Community"
Freie
Schulgemeinde)
and
though
ven while
till
student
Benjamin
repudiated
Wyneken
s hismodel
Br., 120), Wyneken's
figure ignals ertain ies ndimpulses hat ersistednBenjamin.Thisneo-
conservative
enjamin
has more
recently
ound
n
intelligent
nd undaun-
ted
apologist
n Hannah
Arendt,
who would ike
to
safeguard
enjamin,
he
impressionable,
ulnerable
esthete,
ollector
nd hommes e
lettres,
gainst
the
ideological
claims of
his
Marxist and
Zionist
friends."
And
finally,
Benjamin's
close
relationship
o
surrealism as
once
again
come
to
ight
with
the
second
wave of
Benjamin
reception,
reception
whose
impetus
tems
from
hestudent
evolts;
his
elationship
as been documented
n
theworks
of
Bohrer and
Biirger
mong
others.7
In the no man's and between hesefronts as arisen bodyofBenjamin
criticism
hattreats
ts
material
n
scholarly
ashion,
nd
respectably
ives
notice to
the
imprudent
hat this
s
no
longer
unfamiliar errain.' f this
academic treatment f the
matter ffers
possible
corrective o the
dispute
between
the various
parties
that has
very
nearly
splintered
Benjamin's
image,
t
certainly
rovides
no
alternative.
or are the
competingnterpre-
tations
merely
tacked on.
I
doubt
if it was
only
a
predilection
or
the
4P. Szondi, "Nachwort," in Benjamin, StiidtebilderFrankfurtm Main, 1963). For
Tiedemann and
Schweppenhauser,
f.
G.S.;
cf. also
Tiedemann,
Studien
ur
Philosophie
W.
Benjamins
hereafter
ited as Studien.
5H.
Brenner,
"Die Lesbarkeit er Bilder.
Skizzen
um
Passagenentwurf,"
n
alternative,
9-
60
(1968),
48
ff.H.
Lethen,
Zur
materialistischen
unsttheorie
enjamins,"
n
alternative,
6-
57
(1967),
225-234.
M.
Scharang,
Zur
Emanzipation
er
Kunst,
Neuwied, 1971).
H.H.
Holz,
Vom
Kunstwerk
ur
Ware,
Neuwied, 1972).
"Arendt,
"Introduction:
Walter
Benjamin
1892-1940,"
n
I.,
pp.
1-55.
7P.
Buirger,
er
franzosische
urrealismus
Frankfurt
m
Main,
1971).
K.H.
Bohrer,
Die
gefiihrdete
hantasieoder Surrealismus nd
Terror
Munich,
1970).
E.
Lenk,
Der
springende
Narziss
(Munich, 1971).
G.
Steinwachs,
Mythologie
es Surrealismus
der die
Riichverwand-
lungvon Kultur n Natur Neuwied, 1971). Adorno's critique fsurrealism an be found n
Noten
ur
Literatur,
GS
11,
pp.
101-105;
ollowing
im
s:
H.M.
Enzensberger,
Die
Aporien
der
A
vantgarde,
in
Einzelheiten,
Frankfurt
m
Main,
1962),
pp.
290-315.
For
information
concerning
he state of
secondary
iterature:W.S.
Rubin,
"The
D-S
Expedition,"
The New
York
Review
of
Books, XVIII,
9-10
1972).
"Cf.
the
Benjamin
ssue of the
ournal
Text
nd
Kritik
30-31, 1971)
nd
especially
he
ssays
by
B.
Lindner,
P.
Krumme,
L.
Wiesenthal,
nd an annotated
bibliographypp.
85
ff.)
with
references
o dissertations
n
Benjamin
n
progress.
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4/31
32
Habermas
mysterious,
s Adorno
records,
hat ed
Benjamin
to
keep
his friends
part
from
ach
other:
only
as
some sort
of
surrealisticcene could
one
imagine
seeing Scholem, Adorno and Brecht gatheredtogetherfor a peaceful
symposium
round a
table,
under
which
Breton
nd
Aragon
are
squatting,
while
Wyneken
tands t the door
-
gathered
n
order et
us
say
to
discuss
the
Spirit
f Utopia
Geist
der
Utopie)
r
ndeed he
Spirit
s
Adversary
f
the
Soul
(Geist
als Widersacher
er
Seele).
*
Benjamin's
intellectual
xistence
has
takenon
so
much
f
surreal
uality
hat ne shouldnot onfront
t
with
unreasonable
demands
of
consistency
nd
continuity. enjamin
combined
diverging
motifs,
yet
without
actually
unifying
hem.
And if
they
were
unified,
hen t would
have
to
be
in
as
many
ndividual
nities s
there
re
elements in which the interestedgaze of succeeding generationsof
interpreters
ttempts
o
pierce
the
crust
nd
penetrate
o
regions
where
there re veins
of iveore.
Benjamin
belongs
o those
uthors
who
cannot
be
summarized nd whose
work
s
disposed
o a
history
f
disparate
ffects.
We
encounter
these authors
only
with the sudden
flash of
contemporary
immediacy
n which
thought
akes
power
and holds
sway
for
n
historical
instant.
enjamin
was
accustomed
o
explicate
ontemporaneity
Aktualitiit)
in
terms f the
Talmudic
egend
n
which,
angels
innumerable
ost fnew
ones at
every
moment
(are)
created
n
order
o,
once
they
ave
sung
heir
hymnnGod's presence, ease anddisappear nto hevoid" (G.S. II, 246).
I
would
like to take
as
my point
of
departure
sentence
Benjamin
directed at one
time
against
the
methodsof
cultural
history:
Cultural
history,
o be
sure,
ncreases
he
weight
f
the treasurewhich
ccumulates
on the back of
humanity.
et
cultural
istory
oes not
provide
he
trength
to
shake
off
his
burden
n
order o
be able to
take control f t"
Fuchs,36).
It is
precisely
here that
Benjamin
sees
the taskof
criticism.t is not from
historicist
tandpoint
f
accumulated
ulture
oods
that
Benjamin
views he
documentsof
culture,
which
re at the
same
timethose of
barbarism,
ut
rather rom critical tandpointfthedisintegrationfculture intogoods
which,"
as
Benjamin
adamantly expresses
it,
can
become
"objects
of
possession
for
mankind"
ibid., 35).
Benjamin
does
not,however,
peak
of
a
"dialectical
overcoming
Aufhebung)
f
culture."
I
Herbert
Marcuse,
on
the other
hand,
does
speak
of
an
overcoming
f
culture
n
his
1937
essay
on
"The
Affirmative
haracter
f
Culture."-'
With
*
Translators'
Note]
Geist
der
Utopie
ppeared
in
1918
nd
was
written
y
Ernst
loch,
who
was already a good friend f both Benjamin's and Scholem's at that timeand who was
introduced
o
Adorno
byBenjamin
ten
years
ater n
Berlin;
f.
Man
on His
Own
N.Y.,
1972).
Geist
als
Widersacher
er Seele
appeared
in
1929
and
was
written
y
the
German
cultural
philosopher
udwig
Klages; Benjamin,
lthough
ware of
Klages'
anti-semitism
nd
"common
cause with
fascism,"
maintained an
avid
interest
n
Klages'
work
on
language,
myth,
graphology
rom he
time
of
their
ersonal
cquaintance
during
enjamin's
tudent
ays
until
the end of his
ife.
"Marcuse,
Negations
Boston, 1968),
pp.
88-133.
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5/31
Consciousness-Raising
33
respect
to
classical
bourgeois
art
he
criticizes
he
two-fold
haracter
f
a
world of
beautiful
ppearance
(schoner
Schein)
that
establishes
tself s
autonomous, i.e., beyondbourgeoiscompetition nd social labor. This
autonomy
s
illusory scheinhaft),
n
that
nly
n
therealm
f
fiction
oes
art
allow
the
fulfillmentf an individual laimto
happiness,
whereas
t
veilsthe
complete
absence of
happiness
n
day-to-day eality.
here
is at the same
time an
element
of
truth
n
the
autonomy
of
art,
since
the ideal of the
beautiful
ives xpression
o the
onging
or
happier
ife,
or
he
humanity,
friendliness nd
solidarity
withheld
n
every
existence,
nd
thereby
ran-
scends the
status
uo:
"Affirmativeulturewas thehistorical orm
n
which
were
preserved
hose human
wants
which
urpassed
hematerial
eproduc-
tionofexistence.To that xtent,what s true ftheform fsocialrealityo
which it
belonged
holds for t as well:
right
s on its side.
Certainly,
t
exonerated
external onditions'
rom
esponsibility
or he vocation f
the
human
being,'
thus
tabilizing
heir
njustice.
ut
s
also
held
up
to
them s a
task
the
mage
of a better rder"
op.
cit.,
120).
Marcuse
confrontshis
rt
by enforcing
he claim
implicit
n
the
critique
of
ideology:
the truth
articulated
n
bourgeois
ideals,
but reservedfor the
sphere
of
beautiful
appearance,
must
be taken
iterally.
his
means that rt
s
a
sphere
evered
from
eality
mustbe overcome
dialectically.
Whereas beautiful ppearance is the medium n which ivilsociety t
least
expresses
its own
ideals,
while
at
the
same time
veiling
their
suspension,
the
critique
of art
as
ideology
leads
to
the demand
for
the
dialectical abolition
Aufhebung)
f
autonomous
rt,
a demand
to
reinte-
grate
culture
per
se into
the material
process
of
life.
Revolutionizing
he
relations
f ife
n
civil
ociety
means
thedialectical bolition
f
culture:
To
the extent
thatculture
has transmuted
ulfillable,
ut
factually
nfulfilled,
longings
and
instincts,
t will
lose its
object
. .
.
Beauty
will find
new
embodiment
when
t no
longer
s
represented
s real
illusion
but,
nstead,
expressesreality nd joy inreality" ibid., 130f.).
Face
to face with
he fascistmass
art
of
the
period,
Marcuse could not
ignore
the
possibility
f
a false bolition
f
culture.He
counterposed
o this
another
nstance f
politicized
rt,
ne which
hirty
ears
ater
eemed,
for
moment,
to assume concrete
form
n
the
flower-strewn
arricades
f
the
Paris students. In his
Essay
on
Liberation,
Marcuse
interpreted
he
surrealist
raxis
of the
youth
evolt s the dialectical
vercoming
f
culture
through
which rt
passed
over
into
ife.
'
A
year
beforeMarcuse's
essay
on the affirmativeharacter
f
culture,
Benjamin's articleThe WorkofArt n theAge ofits TechnicalReproduci-
bility
had
appeared
in
the same
journal,
the
Zeitschrift
iir
ozialforschung
"'Marcuse,
An
Essay
on Liberation
Boston,
1969),
especially
hapter
I,
pp.
30ff.Marcuse
has
developed
and
in
part
modified
his
perspective
n
Counterrevolution
nd Revolt
Boston,
1972),
Ch.
2:
"Art
and
Revolution,"
pp.
79-128.
cf. G.
Rohrmoser,
Herrschaft
nd
Versohnung,
sthetik nd die Kulturrevolutiones
Westens
Freiburg,
972).
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6/31
34 Habermas
(I.,
217-251).*
It almostseems
as ifMarcuse
only
recast
Benjamin's
more
subtle
observations
nto he
anguage
f the
critique
f
deology.
The theme
is once again the dialectical bolition Aufhebung) f autonomous rt. The
secular
cult
of
beauty
was to
develop
only
with the Renaissance and
prevailed
for hree
enturies
ibid.,
224).
As art
becomes
eparated
rom ts
basis
in
cult,
the
appearance
of its
autonomy disappears
(ibid.,
226).
Benjamin
lends
support
to his
thesis,
"that art has left he realm of
the
'beautiful
ppearance',"
by
pointing
o the
change
n
the
status f the
work
of
art and the
change
n
the
mode of
ts
reception
ibid., 230).
The
destruction
f
aura
brings
with
t
shift
n
the nnermost
tructure
f
the work of
art;
the
sphere
once removed
from nd set
up
in
opposition
o
thematerialprocessof ifenowdisintegrates.he work f artwithdrawsts
ambivalent
laimto
imperious
uthenticity
nd
inviolability.
t
relinquishes
to
the viewer
ts
historical
estimony
s well
as
its
cultic
ffering.
enjamin
had noted
already
n
1927: "What we used
to
call
art,
nly
tarts
wo
meters
away"
(G.S.
II,
622).
The
trivialized
ork f
art
wins
xhibition alue at the
price
of
its cult value."
Corresponding
o the
changed
structure f
the
workof
art,
there s a
change
n
the
perception
nd
reception
f art. When art s
autonomous,
t s
orientedto individual
njoyment;
fter
he oss
of
ts
ura,
t s
oriented
o
mass reception.Benjamin contrasts ontemplation,haracteristicf the
viewer
as an isolated
ndividual,
with
distraction,
hich
marks
collective
sensitized
to
external
stimuli:
"In the
degeneration
f the
bourgeoisie,
meditation became a school
for
asocial
behavior;
it
was countered
by
diversion
s
a
variety
f the
play
of
social behavior"
ibid.,
238).
Moreover,
Benjamin
sees
in
this ollective
eception
n
enjoyment
f
art
which
s
both
instructive
nd
critical.
I
believe
I can distill
he
concept
of
a mode
of
reception
rom
hesenot
always
consistent
tatements,
concept
which
Benjamin
elicited
from
he
reactionsofa film udience thatwas relaxedyetpossessedof tspresence f
mind:
"Let us
compare
he
creen
n
which film
nfolds ith
he anvas
f
painting.
The
painting
nvites he
viewer
to
contemplation;
efore
t
the
viewer
can
abandon
him/herself
o
his/her
wn flow f
associations.
Before
the movie
frame
e/she
annotdo so . . .
In
fact,
when
person
iews hese
constantly
hanging
film) mages
his/her
tream f
ssociationss
mmediately
*
Translators'
Note]
The titles f thiswork nd theone
by
Adorno mentioned elow have
been taken from he
English
summaries hat
accompanied
their
riginal
publication
n the
Zeitschriftir Sozialforschung.he titlegivenBenjamin'sessay n lluminationsstranslated
from he Frenchversion n
which
he
essay
first
ppeared.
The
text
f
this
nglish
ranslation,
however,
orresponds
o theGerman
version eferredo
by
Habermas nd differs
ubstantially
from
he French.
''
Certain
mages
of the
Madonna
remain
overed
nearly
ll
year
round;
ertain
culptures
on medieval
cathedrals
re
notvisible o
the
viewer n
ground
evel.
With
he
emancipation
f
the various
art
practices
from
ritual
go
increasing pportunities
or
the
exhibition f
their
products"
1.,
225).
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7/31
Consciousness-Raising
35
disrupted.
This
constitutes
he shockeffect f the
film,
which ike all shock
effects eeds
to be
parriedby
a
heightened resence
fmind.Because
of ts
technical tructure,he film as liberated hephysical hock ffect rom he
moral
cushioning
n whichDadaism
had,
as it
were,
held
t"
(ibid., 238).
In
this
discontinuous eries
of
shocks,
the work of art
divested of its aura
releases
experiences
which
ormerly
ad been locked
up
in
ts soteric
tyle.
The assimilation
f these hocks
requires resence
fmind.Here
Benjamin
observes
the exoteric dissolution
of the cultic
spell imposed
upon
the
isolated
viewer
by
the affirmative
haracter f
bourgeois
ulture.
There
is a
change
in the
function
f art the moment
he workof art s
emancipated
from ts
parasitic
ependence
on ritual."
Benjamin
onceives
this s a politicizationfart: "Instead ofbeingbased onritual,tbegins obe
based
on
another
practice politics
ibid., 224).
In
the face
of
fascist
mass
art,
which claims
to be a
political
one,
Benjamin,
like
Marcuse,
certainly
sees
the
danger
of
a false
bolition
Aufhebung)
f art.
The
propaganda
rt
of the Nazis
accomplishes,
t s
true,
he
iquidation
f art s
an autonomous
realm,
but
beneath the
veil of
politicization
ll it
really
does
is serve
to
aestheticize naked
political
force
Gewalt).
It
replaces
the
destroyed
ult
value
of
bourgeois
art
withone that s
manipulatively
anufactured.
he
cultic
spell
is broken
only
to be
synthetically
enewed:
mass
reception
become mass
suggestion.'2
It
seems
that
Benjamin's
theory
f art
develops
a
concept
of culture
based
on the
critique
of
ideology
that
Marcuse
will take
up
a
year
later.
Nevertheless,
he
parallels
are
deceptive.
see four ssential
differences.
(a)
Marcuse
proceeds
by
way
of the
critique
f
ideology,
n
order
to
raise
to consciousness
hecontradiction
etween
deal and
reality
idden
n
the
exemplaryproducts
of
bourgeois
art.
Yet this
critique
mounts
to a
dialectical
abolition
of autonomous
art
only
in the realm of
thought.
Benjamin,
on the
other
hand,
does
not make
critical emands
on a
culture
which remains substantially nshaken. He describes ratherthe actual
process
of the
disintegration
f that aura
upon
which
bourgeois
art
had
based
the
appearance
of its
autonomy.
He
proceeds
descriptively.
e
observes
a
change
n thefunction
fart hat
Marcuse
anticipates
nly
or he
moment
t
which
he
relations
f ife re
revolutionized.
(b)
Thus
it s
striking
hat
Marcuse,
like dealist
esthetics
n
general,
limitshimself
o those
periods
which
ourgeois
onsciousness
tself cknow-
ledges
as
classical.
His orientation
epends
on a
concept
f aesthetic
eauty
in which ssence
appears
symbolically.
lassical
works
f
art,
specially
he
novel and bourgeoistragicdrama (biirgerlichesrauerspiel)n literature,
2"Fascist
art
s not
only
executed
or
masses,
but
also
by
masses
. .
(It)
puts spell
on the
performers
s well as
on
the
recipients
nd
under this
pell
they
must
ppear
to
themselves
monumental, .e.,
incapable
of well-considered
nd
independent
ctions
..
Only
withthe
behavior
that
his
pell
mposes
on
them re themasses ble
to
give xpression
o
themselves t
all
-
or so Fascism
teaches"
(G.S.
III,
488).
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8/31
36
Habermas
become suitable
objects
for
critique
f
deology recisely
ecause of
their
affirmative
haracter,
ust
like rational
natural
aw in the realm
of
political
philosophy.Benjamin's interest, owever,
oncerns
non-affirmative
orms
of
art;
while
investigating
he
baroque Trauerspiel,
e
found
f
counter-
concept
to
the
individual
totality
of the
transfiguring
rtwork n
the
allegorical.
Allegory
expresses
an
experience
of
negativity
an
exper-
ience
of
suffering,
uppression,
he
unreconciled nd the
unfortunate
and
hence militates
gainst
symbolic
rt
which s
disposed
positively,
romising
under false
pretenses
and
projecting
n
advance
happiness,
freedom,
reconciliation
nd
fulfillment.
hereasthe
critique
f
deology
s
necessary
to
decipher
nd surmount
ymbolic
rt,
llegory
s
critique
tself or
rather
it
refers
o
critique:
"What
has survived s
the
extraordinary
etail of
the
allegorical
references: n
object
of
knowledge
whosehaunt ies
amidst he
consciously
onstructed
uins.
Criticism s the
mortification
f
the
works.
This
is cultivated
y
the
essence of
uch
production
more
readily
han
by ny
other"
(0.,
182).
(c)
In this
ontext t
s
important
o
note
further
hat
Marcuse omits
consideration
f
the
transformationsf
bourgeois
rt
by
the
avant-garde,
which
evade
the
direct
grasp
of
a
critique
f
ideology,
whereas
Benjamin
demonstrates he
process
of
autonomous
art's
dialectical
bolition
n
the
history
f
modernity. enjamin,
who
regards
he
appearance
of
the
urban
masses as a "matrix romwhich ll traditional ehavior owardworks fart
emerges
rejuvenated"
(I.,
239),
discovers a
point
of
contact
with
this
phenomenon
precisely
n
those
works
which
seem to
hermetically
eal
themselves
off
from t:
"The
masses have
become
so much
a
part
of
Baudelaire
that
ne
searches
n
vain for
description
f
them n
his
works"
(ibid.,
167).
"
Benjamin pursues
the
tracesof
modernity
ecause
they
ead
to
the
point
where
"the
realm
of
poetry
s
exploded
from
within"
R.,
178).
Insight
nto the
necessity
f
dialectically
vercoming
utonomous
rt
rises
from he
reconstruction
f
what he
vant-garde
eveals bout
bourgeois
rt
bytransformingt.
(d)
Finally,
the
decisive
difference
etween
Marcuse
and
Benjamin
lies
in
the
fact hat
Benjamin
conceives
he
demise
of
autonomous rt
s the
result of
a
revolution
n
reproduction
echnics.
Benjamin
delineates
the
respective
functions
f
painting
nd
photography
n
an
exemplaryway.
By
means of
this
omparison
he shows
he
consequences
f
thenew
techniques
"'Whereas in the symboldestruction s idealized and the transfiguredace of nature s
fleetingly
evealed
in the
light
f
redemption,
n
allegory
he
observer
s
confronted
ith he
facies
hippocratica
f
history
s
a
petrified,
rimordial
andscape
.
.
This s
the
heart f
the
allegorical
way
of
seeing,
of
the
baroque,
secular
explanation
f
history
s
the Passion
of
the
world;
its
mportance
esides
olely
n
the
stations
f
ts
declines"
0.,
166).
"Therefore
Benjamin
opposes
a
superficial
nderstanding
f
I'art
pour
I'art:
"This
is
the
moment o
embark
n
a work
hatwould
lluminates
has no
other
he
risis
f
the rts
hat
we
are
witnessing:
history
f
esoteric
poetry
. .
On its
ast
page
one
would
have to
find
he
x-ray
image
of
surrealism"
R.
184).
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9/31
Consciousness-Raising
7
which
gained ground
n
the
19th
entury
nd
which,
is
ai
vis thetraditional
reproduction
processes operative
in
casting,printing,
woodcutting,
n-
graving
nd
lithography,epresent
new
stage
of
development, stage
which
s
analogous
to thatushered
n
by
the nvention
f
the
printing
ress.
Benjmain
could observe
n his
own
day
a
development
n
records,
ilm nd
radio that
has continued
with he electronic
media at
an accelerated
pace.
The
techniques
and
technologies
of
reproduction
ave
a
radical
effect
on the
inner
structure
f works
of
art. The
work forfeits ts
spatial
and
temporal
individuality
n the
one
hand,
but
gains
a
documentary
authenticity
n
the other.
The
fleeting
nd
repeatable
form f
temporal
structure
eplaces
the
unique
and
enduring
formof
temporal
tructure
typical
f the
autonomous
work
nd
thereby estroys
he
ura,
"the
unique
appearance
of a distance"
sharpens
"sensefor ameness n theworld"
I.,
222
f.). Things
tripped
f
their ura draw
nearer
o themasses
because
the
object
is more
precisely
and
realistically epresented
by
the technical
medium
which ntervenes
etween
t and
the
selective
ensory rgans.
The
authenticity
f
the material
ndeed calls
for constructive
mployment
f
the
means
of realistic
epresentation,
ence,
montage
nd
literarynterpre-
tation
captions
n
photography).
II
As these distinctionshow, Benjamin does not allow himself o be
guided
by
a
concept
of
art
based
on
the
critique
of
ideology.
He
means
something
lse
by
thedemiseof
autonomous
rtthan
does Marcuse
with
his
demand
for hedialectical
bolition
f culture.Marcuse
confrontsdeal
and
reality
nd
raises
to
consciousness
he
unconscious ontent
f
bourgeois
rt
which
both
legitimates
nd
unintentionally
enounces
bourgeois
reality;
Benjamin's
analysis
on the
other hand
dispenses
with the
form f
self-
reflection.
Marcuse,
by
undermining
bjective
llusions
nalytically,
ould
like to
prepare
for
change
n thematerial
onditions
f
ife hus
unveiled:
he would like to usher n the dialectical bolitionof theculture n which
these
relations
re
stabilized.
Benjamin
however annot
view his task
as
an
attack
on
an art
already
pproaching
tsend. His
critique
f
art
pproaches
its
objects
in
conservative
fashion,
whether
dealing
with the
Baroque
Trauerspiel,
Goethe's Elective
Affinities,
audelaire's
Fleur
du
Mal,
or
the
Soviet
film
f
the
early
twenties. t
aims,
t
s
true,
t "the mortification
f
the works"
0.,
182),
but
critique
ommits
uch
destruction
nly
n order o
transpose
what s
worth
knowing
rom
he
medium
f
thebeautiful
nto hat
of
the truth
and
thereby
o
rescue
nd
redeem
t.
'5Here, too,
Benjamin
sees Dadism
as a forerunner
fthe echnical
rts,
lthough mploying
other
means:
"The
revolutionarytrength
f
Dadaism
lay
n
testing
rt
for ts
uthenticity.
ou
made
still-lifes
ut
of
tickets,
pools
of
cotton,
igarette
utts,
nd
mixed
them
with
pictorial
elements.
You
put
frame
ound he
whole
thing.
And
in
this
wayyou
howed
he
public:
ook,
your picture
frame
xplodes
time;
the smallest
uthentic
ragment
f
everyday
ife
ays
more
than
painting.
Just s a
murderer's
loodyfingerprint
n a
page
says
more han
he
book's
text.
Much
of
this
revolutionary
ontent
has rescued
and redeemed
itself
by
passing
into
photomontage"
R.,
229).
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10/31
38
Habermas
Benjamin's
peculiar
onception
f
history
xplains
he
mpulse
o
rescue
and
redeem.'"
A
mystical
ausality
eigns
n
history
n
such
a manner
hat
thereexists"a secretagreementbetweenpast generations nd ours...
Like
every
generation
hat
precedes
us,
we
have
been
endowedwith
weak
messianic
power,
a
power
on
which
he
past
has a claim"
(Theses
on
the
Philosophy
of
History,
n
I.,
254).
This
claim can
only
be
fulfilled
y
the
incessantly
enewed xertion
f the
critical aculties
nabling
he
historical
gaze
to
strain toward
a
past
in
need of
redemption.
This effort
s
conservative
n an
eminent
ense,
"for
every
mage
of the
past
that s
not
recognized
by
the
present
s
one
of tsown concerns hreatens o
disappear
irretrievably"ibid.,
255).
If the
claim
s not
fulfilled,
hen
danger
hreatens
"both thecontent ftradition nd itsreceivers" ibid.). 7
For
Benjamin,
the
continuum f
history
onsists
n
the
permanence
of the
unbearable;
progress
s
the eternalreturn
f the
catastrophe:
The
concept
of
progress
should be
founded
in
the idea of
catastrophe,"
Benjamin
notes n a
draft f his
Baudelaire
work,
the
fact
hat
everything
just goes
on'
is the
catastrophe"
G.S.
I,
583).
Therefore
edemption
must
hold on
to
"the
small
kip
or
crack
n the
continuous
atastrophe."
he idea
of a
present
n
which
ime
draws o a
stop
and comes to
a standstill umbers
among Benjamin's
oldest
insights.
n the
"Theses on the
Philosophy
f
History,"writtenhortlyeforehisdeath, tands he entral enet: History
is the
object
of a
construction hose site
forms ot
homogeneous,
mpty
time,
buttime
filled
y
the
presence
f
the
now'
Jetztzeit,
unc
tans).
Thus
to
Robespierre
ancient
Rome
was a
past charged
with he time
of the now
which
he
blastedout
of
the
contiuum
f
history"
I.,
261).
One
of
his
arliest
essays,
"The
Life of
Students,"
begins
in
a
similarsense:
"There
is
a
conception
of
history
which,
in
its faith
in
the
endlessness
of
time,
distinguishes nly
between
the
differences
n
tempo
of human
beings
nd
epochs rolling
with
more
or
less
speed
toward
he future
long
the
track f
progress.The following onsiderations,n the otherhand are concerned
with
specific
tate
of
affairs
n
which
history
ests s if
ollected
n
a
focal
point,
as it
always
has in the
utopian
mages projected by
thinkers.
he
elements
of the
ultimate
state of
affairs re
not
manifest s
formless
"'Tiedemann,
Studien,
pp.
103
ff.,;
H.D.
Kittsteiner,
Die
Geschichtsphilosophischert
Thesen,
in
alternative,
5-66,
243-251.
'iThe
redemptive ower
of
retrospective
ritique
must
not,
of
course,
be
confused
with
he
empathy
nd
identification ith
he
past
which
historicism
dopted
from
omanticism: With
Romanticismbeginsthehuntforfalsewealth,for heannexation feverypast.Thiswas not
achieved
through
he
progressive
mancipation
f
humanity, way
n
which t
could look its
own
history
n
the
eye
with
ncreasing
resence
of
mind nd
alwaysget
new
tips
from
t,
but
rather
hrough
he
imitation f
all the works
t
managed
to
dig
up
out
of
peoples
and world
epochs
that
had
died
out"
(G.S.
II,
581).
This
reference
s,
on
the
other
hand,
not
a
recommendation or
hermeneutic
nterpretation
f
history
s a
continuum f
historical
ffects
nor
a
recommendation
or
the
reconstruction
f
history
s a
formative
rocess
Bildungs-
prozess)
for he
species.
Such
s
precluded y
his
deeply ntievolutionary
onception
f
history.
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11/31
Consciousness-Raising
39
tendencies f
progress,
utrather
re
embedded
n
every resent
s
the
most
endangered,
discredited
nd
ridiculed reations
nd
thoughts"
G.S.
II,
75).
To be sure,therehas been a shiftn the nterpretationfa redemptive
and
rescuing
ntervention
nto
past
since
the
doctrine
f
deas
presented
n
the book
on the
Baroque
Trauerspiel.
arlier,
the
retrospectively
irected
gaze
was
to
gather
p
and enclose therescued
phenomenon
nto
he
world
f
ideas after
t had
escaped
the
process
of
becoming
nd
disappearance.
With
its
entrance
nto the
sphere
of the
eternal,
he
original
ccurence
divests
itself
of
its
past
and
subsequent
history,
which
has
become
virtual,
ike
natural-historical
estments
0.,
45-7).
This
constellation
f natural
history
and
eternityyields
later to that
of
history
nd
Jetztzeit:
he messianic
cessationof eventsreplacesorigin.'"The enemy,however,whoendangers
the dead
as
much
s the
iving
when
redemptive
riticism
ails o
appear
and
forgetfulnesspreads,
remains he ame:
namely
hedominance f
mythical
fate.
Myth
marks debased
human
pecies,
hopelessly
eprived
f
the
good
and
just
life
forwhich t
was determined
banished
to a cursed
cycle
of
merely eproducing
tself
nd
surviving.
Mythical
ate
an
be
brought
o
a
standstill
for
only
an
ephemeral
moment.The
fragments
f
experience
which re wrested
rom
ate n such
moments,
rom he ontinuum
f
empty
time forthe
contemporary
mmediacy
f the
Jetztzeit,
orm
he
content
f
endangered radition,o which hehistoryf rtbelongs swell. Tiedemann
quotes
the
passage
from
he "Paris Arcades"
project:
"There is
a
place
in
every
true work
of art
where,
ike the
breeze
of
an
approaching
awn,
a
certain
ool refreshes
homever
emoves
himself here.
t
follows
rom his
that
rt,
which
was
often iewed
s
refractory
o
any
relation
o
progress,
an
serve
its
genuine
determination.
rogress
s
not
at
home
n
the
continuity,
but rather
n
the
nterferences
f the
course
of time:
where
omething
ruly
new
makes itself
felt for
the
first ime
with
all the
sobriety
f
dawn"
(Tiedemann,
Studien,
pp.
103
f.).
The pre-historyfmodernity lannedby Benjamin,though ompleted
only
in
fragments,
s
also relevant
n
this
context.
Baudelaire
becomes
something
f central
mportance
o
Benjamin
because
his
poetry
rings
o
light
the new
n
the
repeatedly
ame,
and the
repeatedly
ame
in
the
new"
(G.S.
I.
673).
In the
accelerating process
of
antiquation,
which
understands
nd
misunderstands
tself
s
progress,
Benjamin's
critique
discovers
coinci-
dence
withwhat has
existed
from
ime
mmemorial.
his
critique
dentifies
the
mythical
ompulsion
to
repeat
that
nfiltrates
apitalism,
espite
the
modernizationof the patternsof existence impelled by the forcesof
production
the
repeatedly
ame
in
the
new.
But
in
doing
o,
this riticism
"B.
Lindner,
"'Natur-Geschichte'
eine
Geschichtsphilosophie
nd
Welterfahrung
n
Benjamins
Schriften,
in
Text
und
Kritik,
.
56.
'In
this
sense,
enlightened
ciences
such
as
systems
heory
nd
behaviorist
sychology
conceive
of
human
beings
as
"mythical" eings.
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12/31
40
Habermas
aims at the
redemption
of a
past charged
with
"Jetztzeit,"
nd
that
distinguishes
t
from he
critique
f
ideology.
t ascertains
he moments
n
whichthe artistic ensibility uts a stop to fatedraped as progress nd
encodes
the
utopian experience
n a
dialectical
mage
-
the new in
the
repeatedly
same.
The
transformationf
modernity
nto
prehistory
as
a
double
meaning
n
Benjamin.
Both the
myth
tself
nd
thesubstance f
the
images,
which
alone
can
be
broken out
of
myth,
re
prehistoric.
hese
images
mustbe
critically
enewed
n
another,
lmost waited
present
nd
rendered
o
"freadability"
Lesbarkeit)
n
order hat
heymight
e
preserved
as tradition
or
rue
progress.20
Benjamin's
anti-evolutionaryonception
f
history,
n
which
Jetztzeit
nd the
continuum
f
natural
history
tand
opposed, does not remain completelyblind to progressmade in the
emancipation
of
humanity.
ut
Benjamin's anti-evolutionary
onception
takes
a
gravely
pessimistic
iew
of
the
changes
for the
selective
break-
throughs,
whichundermine he
repeatedly
ame,
to unite nto
a
tradition
and
not
fall
prey
o
being forgotten.
At the
same
time,
Benjamin
without doubtdiscerns
continuity
hich
as
linear
progress
reaks
through
he
cycle
of natural
history,
ut
nonethe-
less
endangers
thereby
he
content
of
tradition.
t
is the
continuity
f
disenchantment
Entzauberung),
whose
final
tage
Benjamin
diagnoses
s
the lossofaura: "In prehistoricimes, ecause of theabsolute mphasis n
its
ult
value,
thework f
rt
was,
first
nd
foremost,
n
instrumentf
magic.
Only
later did it
come to
be
recognized
s a workof
art.
In
the same
way
today,
because
of
theabsolute
emphasis
n
its
xhibition
alue,
thework f
art becomes a
structure ith
ntirely
ew
functions,
mong
which he one
we are
conscious
of,
the artistic
function,
ater
may
be
recognized
as
incidental"
I.,
225).
Benjamin
does not
explain
this
processby
which
rt
develops away
from
itual;
ne
should
probably
nderstandt s a
part
f
the
world-historical
ationalization
rocess
-
Max Weber also
uses the term
disenchantmentorthisprocess:thesurging evelopment fthe forces f
production
evolutionizes he mode of
production
nd
causes
a
rationaliza-
tion
process
n
social
patterns
f
existence.
Autonomous rt
stablishes tself
only
to
the
extent hat
he arts re
freed
rom he
context
f ritual se. This
occurs
only
when,
in
the
emergence
of
civil
society,
the
economic and
political
ystems
re
unleashed
from
he
cultural
ystem
nd
thetraditional
images
of the
world
are undermined
y
the
ideology
that
ttaches
o the
economic base
-
the
ideology
f
ust
exchange.2
2""And
indeed,
this
ttainment f
readibility'
s
a
well-determinedritical
oint
within
hem
(the
dialectical
mages).
Every
present
s
determined
hrough
hose
mages ynchronic
ith t:
every
now s thenow of
well-determined
ecognizability.
n
the
now,
truth
s
charged
with
ime
to
the
point
of
exploding"
cited
from
iedemann,
Studien,
.
310).
'"Autonomy"
here
designates
he
ndependence
fworks
f art
vis vis
claims aid to
them
for their
employment
n
contexts
xternal
o
art,
the
autonomy
f
artistic
roduction
ould
already
start
developing
arlier,
namely
within
atron
forms
f
alimentation.
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13/31
Consciousness-Raising
41
It
is
to
its
commodity
haracter
hat
art owes
its iberation
n
the first
place;
it
was a
liberation or he
private
njoyment
f the
bourgeois
eading
and theater, xhibitionnd concertpublicthat ame intobeing nthe 17th
and
18th
centuries."2
he
continuation f
this ame
process,
to
which rt
owes
its
autonomy,
lso leads to
the
iquidation
f
art.
Already
n
the
19th
century
t
becomes
noticeable
hat he
public omposed
of
bourgeois rivate
persons
gives
way
to urban collectives f
the
working
opulation.
For this
reason,
Benjamin
concentrates
n
Paris
as
the
urban enter
ar
excellence
and on the
phenomena
f
mass
art,
for as
Benjamin
oncludeshis
passage
on
the
process by
which art
develops away
from
ritual "this much is
certain:
oday,
photography
nd
the
film
rovide
hemost
uitablemeansto
recognizethis" ibid.)
III
On no other
point
did Adorno
oppose Benjamin
o
vigorously.
dorno
considers he
mass art
merging
ith
he
new
techniques
nd
technologies
f
reproduction
as a
degeneration
of art. The
market,
which made the
autonomy
f
bourgeois
rt
possible
n the
first
lace,
permits
he
emergence
of a
culture
ndustry
hat
penetrates
nto
the
pores
of thework f
art
tself,
and
together
withthe
commodity
haracter
f
the workof
art,
forces he
viewer
nto
the
attitudinal
atterns
f
a
consumer.Adorno
developed
this
critiquefor hefirstime n1939,withazz as an example, nhisessay"The
Fetish
Character
n
Music and the
Retrogression
f
Listening"
Uber
den
Fetischcharacter
n derMusik unddie
Regression
es
Horens,
n
AGS
14,
pp.
14-50).
In
Adorno's
posthumous
Aesthetic
heory,
he
critique,
whichhad
been
applied
to
many
different
bjects
in
the
meantime,
s
generalized
nd
summarized
under the title "The
Degeneration
of
Art
Deprived
of
its
Character s
Art"
(Entkunstung
er
Kunst):
"There
s
nothing
eft fthe rt
work's
autonomyexcept
for ts
character
s a
commodity
etish,
nd the
customers
f
culture
re roused
to
indignation
hat
omeone
might
onsider
itsomethingmorethanthat . . . The work f art sdisqualifieds a tabula
rasa
for
subjective
projections.
The
poles
of
its
depravity
nd
deprivation
are its character
s
thing mong things
nd itscharacter s a
vehiclefor
he
psychology
f the viewer.What reified rtworksno
longer
ay,
the viewer
substitutes
with
that standardizedecho of
himself/herself
hich
he/she
hears
in
them. The culture
ndustry
ets this mechanism
n motion and
exploits
t"
(AGS
7,
p.
33).
The
concrete
historical
xperience
which
s
bound
up
in
this
ritique
f
the
culture
ndustry
s
a
disappointment
ot
so
much
with the
history
f
decay inart,religion, ndphilosophys with hehistorical arodiesof their
transcendence.
he
constellation f
bourgeois
ulture
n
the
classical
ge
of
its
development
was characterized
by,
if
an
oversimplification ay
be
22A.
Hauser,
The Social
History f
Art
London,
1951),
2
vols. J.
Habermas,
Strukturwandel
der
Offentlichkeit,
th ed.
(Neuwied,
1971),
pp.
46
ff.
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14/31
42
Habermas
permitted,
he
dissolution ftraditional
mages
of the world:
First,
by
the
retreat
f
religion
nto
he
regions
f
private
elief; urther,
y
he
lliance
of
an empiricistnd rationalist hilosophywith newphysics; ndfinally, y
an art
whichbecame
autonomous nd has taken
up
positions
n
behalf
f
the
victims
f
bourgeois
rationalization. rt s the
refuge
or
satisfaction,
ven
if
only
virtual,
f those
wants thathave
become,
as
it
were,
llegal
n
the
material
process
of
life
n
bourgeois
ociety.
referhere to
the need
for
mimetic elationwith
nature,
xternal
nature s well as that
f
one's
body;
the need for
solidarity
n
living
with
others,
ndeed for he
happiness
f
a
communicative
xperience, xempt
from
mperatives
f
purposive-ration-
ality
Zweckrationalitiit)
nd
giving cope
to
imagination
s well
as
sponta-
neity.This constellation fbourgeois ulturewasbynomeansstable. Like
liberalism
tself,
t
asted,
so to
speak,
only
for
moment nd thenfell
prey
to
the
dialectic f
the
enlightenment
or
rather o
capitalism
s its
neluctable
vehicle).
Art's
oss
of
aura had
already
been
announced
byHegel
in
his
ectures
n
aesthetics."
In
conceiving
rt
and
religion
o
be
limited orms f
absolute
knowledge penetrated by
philosophy,
he
sets
in
motion a
dialectic
of
"Aufhebung"
sublation)
which
oon
transcends he
boundaries
of
Hegel-
ian
logic.
Hegel's
students
would
consumate
this
dialectic
n
a
secular
critique- first f religion nd then of philosophy only in order to
ultimately ring
he abolition
Aufhebung)
f
philsophy
nd its
realization
to
issue
in
the
transcendence
Aufhebung)
f
political ower:
this
marks he
hour of
birth f
the
Marxian
critique
f
ideology.
What was still
veiled in
Hegel's
construction s
now thrown
nto relief:
the
special
status
of art
amidstthe
forms
f
the absolute
spirit.
Art
maintains
special
status o the
extent
hat,
unlike
ubjective eligion
nd
scientistic
hilosophy,
t
does not
take
on
tasks
n
the
economic and
political
ystems.
Rather,
t
rounds
up
residual
needs that
can
findno
satisfaction
ithin
he
"system
f
needs,"
preciselywithin ivil ociety.Thus thesphereofartremained xempt rom
the
critique
f
deology
until ur
century.
When
at
last t too
fell
prey
o
the
critique
of
ideology,
the
ironic
bolition
Aufhebung)
f
religion
nd
philosophy
was
already
n
sight.
Today,
even
religion
s
no
longer
private
matter;
ut
n
the
atheism f
the
masses,
the
utopian
ontents
f
tradition
re
ost s
well.
Philosophy
as
been
divested
of its
metaphysical
laim;
but in
the
ruling
cientism,
he
constructions
efore
which a
wretched
reality
had to
justify
tself,
have
23"Art
n tsbeginningstilleaves ver omething ysterious,secret orebodingnd a
longing
..
But
f
he
perfect
ontent
as
been
perfectly
evealedn
rtistic
hapes,
hen
he
more
ar-seeingpirit ejects
his
bjective
anifestationnd
urns
ack nto
ts
nnerelf. his
is
the ase
in
our
own
ime.We
may
well
hope
that rtwill
lways
ise
higher
nd
come o
perfection,
ut
he
orm f
rthas
eased o
be
the
upreme
eed
f
he
pirit.
o
matter ow
excellent e
find
he
tatues f
he
Greek
ods,
o
matter ow
we ee
God
the
ather,
hrist,
and
Mary
o
estimably
nd
perfectly
ortrayed:
t s
no
help;
we
bow
the
kneeno
longer"
(Aesthetics,
ectures
n
Fine
Art,
G.W.F.
Hegel,
Oxford,
975],
ol.
,
p.
103).
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15/31
Consciousness-Raising
43
decayed
as
well.
Meanwhile,
ven
an
"Aufhebung"
f
cience
s at hand.
t s
true
that
ts
appearance
of
autonomy
s
destroyed,
ut not
so much
for he
sake of guiding the systemof science by means of discourse as of
functionalizing
t
for ortuitous
naturwiichsig)
nterests.2"
Adorno's
critique
of
a false abolitionof art should
ikewisebe
seen
in
this
ontext.
True,
this
"Aufhebung"destroys
rt's
ura,
butwhen
t
eliminates he
organization
f
domination n
the
workof
art,
t
simultaneouslyiquidates
he
work
f art's
claim
to
truth.
Disillusionment
at the
false
abolition
of
something,
be
it
religion,
philosophy
or
art,
can induce
a reaction
in
someone that results
n
vacillation,
f
not
hesitation,
where
he
prefers
o mistrust
ltogether
he
process bywhichabsolutespirit ecome practical, ather hanto givehis
consent
o its
iquidation.
To
this s attached
n
option
for
he
soteric
escue
and
redemption
f the moments
f
truth.
his
distinguishes
dorno
from
Benjamin,
who
insists
hat
he truemoments f tradition re redeemed
for
the
messianicfuture ither
xoterically
r not at
all. Adorno
atheistic
ike
Benjamin
-
although
not
in
the same
way)
opposes
the false abolition
of
religion
with
restoration
f
utopian
ontents hat onstitute
ferment or
uncompromising
ritical
hought,
hough
his
pecifically
voids
taking
he
formof a universalized ecular
illumination.
dorno
(antipositivistic
ike
Benjamin) opposes the false abolitionofphilosophywith restorationf
critique's
transcendent
mpetus.
This
critique
s in a certain ense
autarkic,
though
t
specifically
voids
penetrating
nto
the
positive
ciences nd thus
becoming
universal
n
the
form
f
scientific
elf-reflection.
dorno
opposes
the false abolition
of art with the
hermetic
modernity
f
Kafka and
Sch6nberg,
though pecifically
voiding
mass
art,
whichmakes
auratically
encapsulized
experiencespublic.
After
having
read the
manuscript
f the
Work
of
Art
essay,
Adorno
objected
n
a
letter,
ated
18
March
1936,
"that
the
center
f
the
utonomous
work f rt
does
not tself
elong
on
the
ide
of
myth
.
. Dialecticalthough our ssaymaybe, it snot o in the ase ofthe
autonomous
work
of
art
itself;
t
disregards
he
elementary
xperience
which
becomes
more evident o
me
every
ay
n
my
wn
musical
xperience
-
that
precisely
the utmost
consistency
n the
technological
aw
of
autonomous
art
changes
this rt
and instead
of
rendering
t nto
a
taboo
or
fetish,
approximates
t
to the state of
freedom,
of
something
hat
can
consciously
be
produced
and
made"
(NLR, 65).
After
the
aura
disinte-
grates, only
the formalistic
ork
of
art,
inaccessible
to
the
masses,
can
withstand he
forces
assimilating
t
to
the market-determined
ants and
attitudes f the consumer.
Adorno
pursues
strategy
f
hibernation,
hose obvious
weakness ies
in
its
defensive
character.
nterestingly
nough,
Adorno's thesis can
be
proven
with
xamples
from
iteraturend
music,
nly
s
long
s
they
emain
24This
thesis
s
represented
y
J.
Behrmann,
G.
B6hme,
W. van den
Daele,
W.
Krohn,
Alternativen
n
der
Wissenschaft
manuscript).
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16/31
44
Habermas
dependent
on
reproduction
echnics hat
prescribe
solated
reading
and
contemplative
istening,
.e.,
a mode of
reception
hat eads down
the
royal
road to bourgeois ndividuation. noticeabledevelopment fartswith
collective mode of
reception,
however,
uch
as
architecture,
heater
nd
painting,
s well as utilitarian
opular
literature
Gebrauchsliteratur)
nd
music with heir
dependence
on
the electronic
media,
points
beyond
mere
culture
industry
nd
does
not
a
fortiori
efute
Benjamin's hope
for a
universalized ecular llumination.
Admittedly,
art's
development away
from ritual retains a
double
meaning
for
Benjamin
as
well.
It is as if
Benjamin
feared
n
elimination
f
myth
without
n
ensuing
iberation;
s if
myth
would
have
to
finally
dmit
defeat,and yetstillbe able to refrain rom ransposingtscontents ntoa
tradition,
o that t
might riumph
ven
n
defeat.Now that
myth
as donned
the
vestments f
progress, mages
which radition lone can
recoverfrom
the nner ore of
myth
hreaten o come to
naught
nd
be lost o
redemptive
criticism
orever. he
myth
whose haunt s
in
modernity
xpresses
tself n
positivism's
elief
n
progress;
t
s
the
enemy
gainst
whom
Benjamin
set
the
whole
pathos
of
redemption.
ar
from
eing guarantor
f
liberation,
the
development
way
from
ritual
ominously
orebodes
specific
oss in
experience.
IV
Benjamin's
attitude owards
he loss of
aura was
always
ambivalent.'5
Since the historical
xperience
f
a
past
Jetztzeit
eeds to
be
recharged,
nd
because this
experience
s
locked within
he aura of a
work
of
art,
the
undialectical
isintegration
fthe
ura
would
mean he ossof
this
xperience.
Already
at
the
time when
Benjamin,
as a
student,
till
believed he could
sketch he
"Program
f
Coming
Philosophy,"
he
concept
f
n
unmutilated
experience
tood
at
the center f
his
considerations.
t that ime
Benjamin
directed his
polemicagainst
an
"experience
reduced as
it
were
to
degreezero, to the minimum f
significance,"
.e.,
against
the
experience
of
physicalobjects
underlying
he
paradigmatic
rientation
f
Kant's
attempt
to
analyze
the
conditions f
possible xperience G.S.
II,
159).
In
opposition
to this
Benjamin
defends
he
more
complex
ypes
f
experience
ommon
o
primitive
peoples
and
madmen,
seers
and
artists.
He still had
hopes
of
recovering
rom
metaphysics
systematic
ontinuum
f
experience.
Later
he
imputed
his
ask to
the
critique
f
art;
this
ritique
hould
ranspose
he
beautiful
nto
he
medium f
truth,
herein truth s
not n
unveiling,
hich
annihilates
the
mystery,
ut
a
revelation nd
a
manifestation
hatdoes it
justice" (0., 31) The conceptofaura
ultimately
akes the
place
ofbeautiful
appearance
as the
necessary
eil.
By
disintegrating,
ura reveals he
mystery
of the
complex
experience:
"Experience
of the
aura thus
rests on
the
25
"For
the
ast
time
he
ura emanatesfrom he
earlyphotographs
n
the
fleetingxpression
of a
human
face. This
is
what
constitutes
heir
melancholy,
ncomparable eauty"
I.,
226).
This content downloaded from 140.254.87.103 on Fri, 24 May 2013 20:32:05 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/11/2019 Habermas Sobre Benjamin
17/31
Consciousness-Raising
5
transposition
f a
response
ommon
n
human
relationships
o
therelation-
ship
between the
inanimate r
natural
object
and the
human
being.
The
personwelookat,orwhofeelshe/shesbeingooked t, ooks t us nturn. o
perceive
the aura of
an
object
we look
at
meansto invest
twith
he
capacity
to look
at
us
in
return"
I.,
188).
The
appearance
(Erscheinung)
of
the
aura
can occur
only
in the
intersubjective
relation of the
ego
to its
counterpart,
he alter
ego.
Whenevernature s thus invested"
o that t ooks at us
n
return,
he
object
is
transformed
nto
counterpart.
niversal
nimism f nature
s the
ign
f
magical mages
of
the
world;
herethere
s as
yet
no
split
between
he
phere
of
the
objectivated
form,
which
we control
manipulatively,
nd the
intersubjectiveealm, nwhichwecommunicativelyncounterne another.
Instead,
the
world
is
organized according
to
analogies
and
parallelism;
totemistic
lassifications
rovide
an
example
of
this.
Synesthetic
ssocia-
tions are
the
subjective
remainder f
the
perception
f
such
correspon-
dences.2"
From
the
appearance
of
the aura
Benjamin
develops
the
emphatic
concept
of
an
experience
which
needs to be
critically
reserved
nd made
relevant
f
hemessianic
romise
f
happiness
s everto be
fulfilled;
n
other
instances, however,
he treatsthe
loss of aura
affirmatively.
his
double
meaningalso expressesitself n Benjamin's emphasison precisely hose
achievements
f autonomous
rtthat ikewise
distinguish
he art
work
hat
has
developed
away
from
itual.
urrealist
rt,
whose
representatives
nce
again
ado
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