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c h a p t e r 1 3 The Ephemeral and the Absolute: Provisional Notes to Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory Peter Uwe Hohendahl Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, initially shunned or attacked when it was posthumously published in 1970, has become increasingly his most widely and carefully read work. While the interpreters are still in disagreement about the appropriate reading of the text, there is largely consensus about its significance as the culmination of Adorno’s œuvre and its importance for the contemporary aesthetic debate. More controversial, however, is the value assigned to Adorno’s contribution to the contemporary discussion. Briefly put, three positions can be distinguished. First, among the interpreters of Adorno there still exists a core of more or less orthodox readers for whom Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory represents the most advanced articulation of the aesthetic problematic.1 For them, competing theories are either theoretically inferior or historically less relevant; therefore, they deny the need for a reassessment of Adorno’s theory in light of more recent experiences and theoretical developments—a need suggested by the second position . Here we find readers who acknowledge the significance and value of Adorno’s writings, but insist on analyzing them in the context of later theories, such as those of Habermas or Luhmann.2 This second position foregrounds the historical relevance of Adorno, but also the task of going beyond Adorno’s theory. With the third position, the emphasis shifts from a positive historical assessment to a more critical or even negative one. 206 207 Peter Uwe Hohendahl Here, Adorno’s theory is perceived primarily as outdated and therefore in the way of new perspectives.3 Some of the more familiar objections concern Adorno’s resistance to popular art and his rigid emphasis on aesthetic autonomy, defined in terms of the sovereignty of the artwork. Of course, the rejection of Adorno’s understanding of art can be articulated in different theoretical terms, ranging from a Foucauldian denial of aesthetic autonomy to a reconsideration of the aesthetic in Bourdieu and Luhmann. The recent polemic against the Adorno orthodoxy has highlighted two moments of his theory: on the one hand, it has challenged Adorno’s philosophical assessment of modern art, in particular his conception of the end of art and the impossibility of returning to a stable and unquestioned concept of art; on the other, it has foregrounded the narrow parameters of Adorno’s theory, i.e., its Eurocentric nature and its failure vis-à-vis the contemporary global art scene. His more hostile critics focus on the failure of Adorno’s most central claims and therefore call for no less than a replacement of Adorno’s aesthetic theory. The problem with this type of critique is its theoretical foundation. It tends to share an unacknowledged common ground with more orthodox interpretations. Put differently, the rejection of Adorno is grounded in the very kind of interpretation that orthodox Adorno critics have put forward to defend his work. I suggest that it is time to reexamine this discourse, which needs to be challenged; therefore we may want to review a set of notions and ideas that have guided the reading of Aesthetic Theory since 1970. They have defined the parameters of the discussion and thereby also the character and the limits of criticism. Those who have called for an overdue revision or an outright rejection of Adorno’s theory operate on an assessment of Adorno’s writings that claims the authority of the author. Hence they can speak in the name of Adorno, whose self-representation they use for their own purposes . The purpose of this essay is to break away from this approach, whose historical legitimacy is by no means denied. Instead, I want to explore the possibility of an alternative understanding of Aesthetic Theory in which key concepts receive a different interpretation, thereby changing the configuration of the theory and by extension the dogma. The point of this exercise is not confrontation and polemic but opening up a different perspective that will show Adorno’s work in an unexpected light. While Adorno has served in contemporary discourse mainly as the voice of aesthetic autonomy, I want to show that this interpretation has overlooked or downplayed those passages in which the authority of the artwork is radically questioned, and in which the highly problematic status of art is foregrounded . Seen in this light, Adorno appears to undermine his own defense of art in a late-capitalist society...

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