ADORNO & JAZZ: JAUSS CONTRA ADORNO [12]

[Ralph Dumain <rdumain@xxxxxxx>]

In re:

Jauss, Hans Robert.  AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AND LITERARY HERMENEUTICS.
Translation by Michael Shaw, introduction by Wlad Godzich.  Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1982.  (Theory and History of Literature; v. 3)

This is the book by Jauss I alluded to in an earlier post.  Jazz is never
mentioned, but this is significant as a running polemic against Adorno's
aesthetic theory in toto and its ramifications for literature.  Jauss is
best known for is contributions to "reception theory".  He is especially
concerned with the changing horizons of literary reception over time,
something that ought to concern us in an era of accelerated cultural
change.  There are a number of illuminating examples, esp. of the
transmutations of underlying assumptions coming out of the transition from
feudal to modern views of the world.  There is much more that Jauss has to
offer, but none of this is why I mention him here.

Jauss's disagreement with Adorno begins in the preface and continues in the
first chapter, second section, entitled "Critique of Adorno's aesthetics of
negativity".  Jauss lashes into Adorno's theoretical principles, claiming
that Adorno and other proponents of the ideology-critique approach have
shortchanged aesthetic experience and short-circuited serious examination
of same by imposing larger sociological criteria in an a priori fashion
upon the characterization of artistic works.  The puritanical demand that
artworks be tailored to be unassimilable by the "culture industry" cannot
be justified and itself results in unresolvable contradictions.  Read this
argument for yourself, as my vulgar summary does not do it justice.

I shall continue to raid my archives for more material, but I believe the
few articles I've cited already go to the essence of the matter.  The
article by James Harding may well be the best in showing how Adorno goes
wrong with the best of intentions.  It may be that the article in FOUND
OBJECT #7 is the best indictment of the ridiculous ethnocentric prejudices
embdied in the attitude of Adorno and others.  I can't quite remember which
article best proves the case, but it becomes evident that when one begins
with a critique of Adorno's attack on jazz, his entire aesthetic theory
begins to crumble, and more and more people seem to be recognizing this.

This exchange here reminds me of the more unsavory aspects of the Frankfurt
legacy and its reception among new generations of the intelligentsia, i.e.
a repository for the academic part of the culture industry, Alienation,
Inc., a place for elitist liberals with no other place to go.  So naturally
the worst aspects would come into play.  Not only do we have high culture
snobbery to contend with, but other of the weaker aspects of the Frankfurt
tradition, such as this nonsense about "instrumental reason".  The more
fussy and bourgeois the Franks show themselves, the more acceptable they
become to a certain group of people.

I have yet to see anyone address Adorno's greatest paradox, that he shows
himself to be most questionable in his area of greatest professional
accomplishment, music.  I propose that Adorno's greatest talent is not as
an aesthetician, but as a philosopher.  When you read his brilliant
send-ups of Spengler, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, or his extraordinary reading
of Hegel, or his exposition of negative dialectic, you find yourself in the
presence of a philosophical master who can reveal the essence of what makes
certain philosophies tick.  As an aesthetician, he is just a gruesome,
morbid little troll who can't do any better than wallow in the death throes
of European culture, such as the wretched, malodorous productions of
Shoenberg and Beckett, a culture that deserves to die, a culture that
deserves to be exterminated if it will not leave us of its own free will.

I am also stunned at the incredible conservatism displayed on this list.  I
thought maybe a younger, seemingly more cosmopolitan, differently
enculturated generation would know better.  After all, white music is
completely dead.  In some sense, African music has taken over the world.  I
find it amazing to be in a position to have to fight the old stale battle
against Eurocentrism, when I spend most of my time elsewhere berating the
reactionary mysticism of Afrocentrism and urging people to study the
Frankfurters instead of the crap they read.  Is there no hope anywhere?

Finally, let's keep in mind that this is not about me, but about Lloyd
Spencer's concern.  I am the only one who has seriously addressed it so
far, but surely I can't be the only one who has something to offer ......