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Two: Representation and Opinion (Koselleck, Habermas, Derrida)
- Fordham University Press
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t w o Representation and Opinion (Koselleck, Habermas, Derrida) ‘‘Hilft denn kein Beispiel der Geschichte mehr?’’ [Then no example of history can help us anymore?] g o e t h e , ‘‘Torquanto Tasso’’ (v. 3422) ‘‘Modernism’’ and the Underground of Opinion (Gütersloh & Blei) [T]he verdict that resounds in ‘‘beautiful’’ is reached through lengthy litigation . . . and is finally a result of . . . fatigue. a l b e r t p a r i s g ü t e r s l o h , 1947, my translation The long-term fallout of the revolutionary advent of public opinion, especially with regard to what is loosely called ‘‘the arts,’’ is nowhere more evident than in what is equally loosely called ‘‘modernism’’ (here exemplarily of the Viennese variety). The painter and novelist Albert Paris Gütersloh, a pupil of Gustav Klimt, grew up in the center of this movement, but he belonged to its second generation; a step removed from Klimt, the father- figure, he was especially sensitive to the aging of modern art. As a latecomer in a short-lived movement, the tendencies of which made it susceptible to fall on the wrong side of the political upheavals of the decades to follow,1 Güterlsoh, like Carl Schmitt or Stefan George, represents an extreme, and he was similarly politically compromised.2 There would be no limit to the number of figures that could be discussed in this context, but Gütersloh and his friend Franz Blei represent a relatively unknown branch of modernism and also have the advantage of focusing explicitly on the problem of opinion and the public sphere. PAGE 70 70 ................. 16924$ $CH2 08-13-08 08:15:18 PS Representation and Opinion 71 The relatively marginal place of art and literature in the modern public sphere is thematized throughout Gütersloh’s work and writings; this problem is given a positive form in his specific attempts at its analysis, whereas his works address it negatively and by exclusion because they are conceived as a strategic opposition to popularity and opinion. The positive side manifests itself already in 1918, in his eulogy for Klimt, in which he at one point addresses his fellow artists in the voice of the dead master, paraphrasing the imperative that Klimt had given to artists: Hate compromise as I have hated it, and deify one-sidedness, the monotheistic principle of the artist, as I have deified it. To listen to people’s opinions is already a fall into polytheism. Because the person who gives you the good advice to concede and make a compromise, rather than demanding the impossible, he thinks himself wiser than God (who keeps eternally silent and does not give advice). Be on God’s side, be of His party, and thus do not give yourself advice either. Storm forward, storm after the voice of perfection that lives within you, and do not be troubled by the pangs of conscience about the inquisitorial coldness of your heart when a compromise falls into your hands and waits to be burned at the stake.3 This manifesto recommends the total rejection of opinions and advice, and attempts to trump a conventional and collective conscience with a more internal and individual one. (The tradition of the idea of conscience is the subject of chapter 3.) Gütersloh theorizes works of art as monumental testaments to the singularity of the individual, produced from the furthest recesses (and internalized mimetic pressure) of the group dynamics of modern society. Klimt’s artistic project emerges in overtly prophetic terms: art, as apolitical as it may seem, represents a political endeavor, directed against ‘‘the demonic and perfidious intellectual atmosphere . . . which veils the globe’’ (12). With reference to what he calls the ‘‘time of the catacombs’’ (die Zeit der Katakomben ),4 Gütersloh defines ‘‘modern art’’ as the product of a spiritualintellectual ‘‘underground’’ movement; art is a point of resistance within the ‘‘spiral of silence,’’ and as such, artistic movements define themselves in the anticipation of a time to come. The creators of ‘‘modern’’ art interpret it as the means or symbol of future sociopolitical transformation. As sympathetic as this idea may or may not be, Güterloh’s eulogy may also sound like fundamentalist motivational PAGE 71 ................. 16924$ $CH2 08-13-08 08:15:18 PS [3.227.239.9] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:19 GMT) 72 Representation and Opinion speech, the internal propaganda of a specific clique whose productions—the works...