SPIRIT THAT WANTS TO FLY ~ ADORNO ‘UNDER A SPELL ‘Alex DEMIROVIC? 1 ABSTRACT: Te statng pint of Deni’ ou i Ades oat on ents os ome ctbiskng ae consaton power Diinty fm man Intertaton f Adora go elgned, Demiovie shows that this eazump ton onabls fra a lhe oe theary charac of iervenonsn {he eg coneza evra he wi eat ersncipton | eYWORDG:cnmeaindlees fede eaphennentemancpsti, -Aorna's name i esoeatad with social theory antici be coming a curl event in thai on right, Over the year he bas ie ‘quent been henoted a gue fem ravent Geman elect histo 1. is ame designazas a smal oquare near the university in Frankfurt tn Intetity expose tein on one of the lcs important routes named Sor him the fy of Fret swards sn Adomo ize and thee ate the Adorno Lectites, ganized jointly bythe Ista fr Soiere chung (nvtitate for social roantch) and tho Subskanp publishing house. At fist glance, this may spem surprising, snoe Adero'sthecty notoniy represents afncamentalritque of modem bourgeois eociety taut maintains an emphaticly distanced and skeptical attude tothe ctv of he) cate industry. Not east for that reason, became fan important rforonoe pont fr the protest movements of the 1960s, ‘There was alo tii, however ome ekd-more ot of stration ‘Dean Pl. 2275, 20 2‘at utimaay Adorno too was co-opted ccs, crualy and sometimes ‘allicualy, considered the theory a dubioasitaectal model that radicay nogated contamporny cule and yet dt ox heetata to en ‘oy the pillegest fered. With grater perspective is evident that ‘Adora’ theory met with gaat public approval very elon. By eat" {mean ator his etn fom exe in tho Uniod State in 1988. In the ‘jee of his oontempoaroe Adamo was a phseapher on te evel of "eidagger; is theory was understood in end words to bean epochal ‘contibtion t phasophy and a contemporary continuston of Man's ‘theory (Demivovse, 1800, 525cs). That i rather astonishing 8s Ador- 08 books ret wo Marts hecy 90 invecty. Adorno quickly became incom a sociologist of music fot hs books onthe piocopy cf mod eaniosie and on chard Wet ~ that, fr Books that crrespondod toa reputation thet hed preceded his retur: as Thomas Mana’s compe tent pene in conversstion during tho writing of Doctor Faustus. Adon o's ook Against Epistemology sea ater une and it probably found even fower oder than Disloctic of Bnghtenment, whoso fist printing ould stil be found in Renker in tho late 19508. Th ewo books of elu rls, Minis Morals and Prisms; enojed atively tnd generally postive reception oral tho ceticsm. Orr essays on ‘musi, erature, and sosolgy a well as amereus publiclactures and ‘iscussions utely contributed to hissing aarded the erry ple of ‘he Verband deutscher Kiker (Assocation of Garman etic for hls complete aut in 1958-50, jus a fw oats after his etn. ‘Adorno was frequen clcled there wore numerous inkgues against hi, against what be represented, end against the insit fr Soxialoeechang; novethleo, "rm the boginning” his theory also met ‘with goodwill and enthuse. Adorno wa wel ate ofthe plazing ecto the thesetial pss ard ais positive consoquences, In & ‘location a the socnogits’ convertion in 1958 he defonded himsolt ‘goin Dabronde'a ropreach tat his toocy was practice] and his ‘om language had tain on tha character of argon. He countered bth objections withthe argument that Daended was ignoring the citial and pazodic aspect ofthe expresion “argon” and undetest ‘nating the pactel aspect of idelopcal esque, Adorno prefered to think that he had cotta aide toms cig te Osman socal ete (ied gn th ety hast ir an a pote of i iat ‘gfe ee bo at da ny andi come abs a ‘og, Sa 7 08 sin acacia tpt xs th tac ey ery n xd to ‘oi the sloppices ch envenoming th mateo ‘Seay ted, el ny oes webu be tah by aig onc iv udetding Ado 1972, pS) ‘Taiecommeat onthe discussion reveslstow Adorn conceived ie ‘hovel werk, which rests the lusion of consensus. let, Ada ‘was not pursuing the goa of contbusing to a neat and compact fou of cil thoory that fst roveald it standards int sie po ‘sophical grounds, en wanton to bul up neal fom thse furdaren tal assumptions and finally ventured onto rtecton diagnos of its ay. Rather, he conceived It ae a thowy that developed it uth claim ‘ley In tater anaieds of conoepts and oft experiences inked ‘with thase coats Hence twas not theory ain oat ofthe dept fa univarslim grounded in anchopology but a thery that emerged ‘rough ts “interventions” nto epectc contets nasi of rc tions on concopts, keywords and terms by means of which the thory sts repeatedly extared into polomcal relationship toward quotisian understanding and to ideclogy and contributed to th spans of the indvidval (Adorno, 1908, p27? Truth isnot brought to Dear ‘when ie ulkimetoy ly ea o and promulgates for its own theory an argumentation thats crced trough according to the rules of thes enti discipline but rather win exprionca and impulse aro devel ‘sped terminologealy and brought together ito concreta theoretical ‘conselations, Tocretical wotk i what bing the eoneepts together into conselations, In such constalntons it becomes posible ta tll how ths concept have enriched ner expatienca and meenings hist veal. The night thet this preduoed into how the meaning of eancepts Is shite, extended, an reeictd is tantamount to an understanding of tho stato of dovlopment of bourgocie ccity,sinoo this etato is a ‘waye either modiatd in concepts or concerned to blek such mediation by eans of rstraizstion~and that in turn points ta particular can cuptully mediated state of society. Fc Adorno, the evec ne produc ‘son of auch conceptual conseltion in and trough euch txt ep sents an emancipatory practice of theory. The concepts seek ad ‘summon ope anther. Somoday aconseation could frm in which tho ‘econcling wd i spoken the weed that etches fein the conceptual ‘pen a 087,204 acontxtn such away that relationships among individual are evel to them. That whieh 6eems tobe undar tho epol of tho natural awe of society wil thon bocome recognizable to chem es practices thay po duce and hence subject t change. According to Adorno, society has long eee repeedced tel as natrl context entity onthe basis of tention power rations eedom has lng sinoe been objectively oss on th bai ofthe ett of soctl eapereion~esdom asthe overcoming ofthe tulation of labo and the necessity of materi Jive, Only alacofnsigtt stands nthe way. What seems ny, hoo cre, is immense, bacase te dispection to reas, to theoretical t- ‘ight and expaience, i teesuned even in this sei development by the processes that produce “somicltrs"[Halbunl, chat prevent ‘ona fiom eleveting nesl above the extant, the postive “Ina eimate ‘of somioatre, th fact of education that have sified in comedies surviveat th expense f tar tuth conten and thar ving eanection toliving subject” (Adome, 1972, 103) The ozen ote isl of con- cepta must made to oeclite agin i hs regression to be overcome. ie uth, theory mest establish cho truth capabilites of tho invicual 2 pais of uth is nacesary to soe tot thar tery itself remain ot bocomes again abiding eiantatio for acian a thet repect Adora ts not pessimistic a all Rather, his thooretcl practice represents tho _ttempt to prodicecorstallstion in which th coneaps con asemble Insuch away that, onc the reconeling ward ie spoken, the conceptual ‘xporionce that makes emancipation posible wil be achieve. ‘Thiskind of work on conceptal osstoation eects back on tha ‘theory, since the Iter oenifted with each conatelation and theraby psiponed. Theory i found neither ina “rt text nor ina “ast t {a divcte jut ae much ageing: the expectation of ole syst ox ‘against the notion that thocy a daa tat guards ovr aconstiutve subjact autonomously sto speak, and that ould be gasped by acno- time hermeneutical acion atthe par ofthe inarpeetet~ that oad pethaps be gasped even bot by this symbolic at of vslonce than ‘would be possible or the author, ifthe interpreter could eomnohow es ‘expe the loge feiss sn const Adorno viewed his henry 8 tee process as a sce of intervertins » “ae, Soa 20.0 0 ‘Thaoulfrbndng seamen tat tema cf baught ma and tse ol onal Anode eva he spat {srndmeee thin he reo wht ating eporteise e gach ‘ra conoapt, Papi hiking tno ising eta Sve des nan rst cf ana of dels (dor, 138, 28° ‘Thecry has no zto point; i ite com fom of pas. The wath hac «temporal keel Zeta; tect doos not sete on he concept ina Sina tent; rather. every text feeds ha expactation thet nthe net tex tho consolation could ooaur tat eal theory, concept, sd expiones together nt te econcing word. But Adm gives pectin aro ‘hia dase fora theory that wil mebody aveoeed.“ hinkang bears on anything of importance, thn I ntsts practice impale, no mat tec ow hidden that imple raytemaln to thinking. Thos alone think ‘who do not paiva scoot the aad given” (MTP 268), Tho die for truth and theory is suppascd tn ignite the deste or he sate of a {as that wil someday come about in which people can lve peacetlly together witout manger, without the tbustion of kbar. Naver, {eepitothisinastene that essen must be realized ebjctively-tat is fut tere theory er Adorno el what eprogente a fe or sei Tanti: "Theory speaks fr what i not narow-minded. Despite allots ‘nfresdom, theo isthe guarantor of road inthe midst of unite ‘em ETP 263). Theory ithe banign snd wndet. “Reaty’ pal over pit prevents epnit fom doing whet fis own concept wants to do ‘when faced sith the motly existent: fy” (Adorno, 1998, p.157)* “Tho freadom of eps and of culate stands or the goals hat can ely bo ‘shioved though pean and tha re the binding andar ee rant ‘sel Understood cout, the real goal would ultimately be its wn ab alton (UTP 287: se overooming of th contradictions of theory and practice, the separation of intaactual and pyc abo. [ike everyday undorstanding, theory becomes Weclogy when it ‘makes itso te advocata ofthe objectively existing and ealls frre Sson-fr foun of rason that comps ws to acrommodate ourselves to the conditions and tendencies of society. Inthe posi pe tough cuanto vnsigus tho ap sate py at itt ber that ctype eons The Fartesfubaarthe bet asped lib dombert pie be ‘res SP 2) 275.206 a