Aesthetics, Art and Intimacy

(1)

(2)

(3)

Title: Aesthetics, Art and Intimacy

Editors: Carlos João Correia - Emília Ferreira Cover: Fernando Infante del Rosal

Lisboa/Portugal

This work is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciên- cia e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDB/FIL/00310/2020.

(4)

iii

Introduction

Between the 14th and 16th December 2017, the IV Iberian Aes- thetic Meeting, aiming to encourage collaboration between Spanish held in Lisbon, at the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (UL) and at the Faculdade de Ciências Socials e Humanas, Universi- dade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA).

Organised by the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon, CFUL, the Art History Institute of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, (NOVA), and by the Sociedad Española de Estética y Teoría de las Artes

thetics and artistic creation. -

distinct but complementary directions. On the one hand, upstream, we and, on the other hand, downstream, we wished to analyse how artistic

Aesthetics and Intimacy, Art and Intimacy, and Intimacy and Identity.

- analysing philosophical concepts, cultural constructs, artistic practices addressing this debate by questioning its limits in Walls and Bridges, and deepen this inquiry in Words and Ideas; Images; Spaces and Per- formances; Wishes and Rituals; and end up Home, again.

The essay Art or intimacy: assessing a disjunction, by Vítor Mou- between author and spectator this paper opens Part 1, Walls or bridges.

In Part 2, Words and Ideas, chapters approach both literature -

(7)

VI

Kafka: Modernism and Intimacy; or stating words as entities, as we The total relation: poetry, real, and intimacy in António Ramos Rosa

Bento addresses, in -

tivity in Adorno’s aesthetics

The Unity of our Aesthetic Life. A crazy suggestion, and Carlos Bizarro Morais goes To- wards an Aesthetic of Intimacy. A contribution to the critique of Mikel Dufrenne

In Part 3, on Images

Contributions to an Aesthetic of Intimacy in Paula Rego. Eroticism and Carnality; Teresa Lousa approaches the Detachment and Intimacy. The corpse in the art of Teresa Margolles

in From Carte de Visite ; Chris-

Intimacy of a Hologram. “Blade Runner 2049”; and Òscar Canalís The Art and privacy. The (voyeuristic) look of the cinema spectator, dwells on the relationship between anonymity

Spaces and Performances -

with City. An Aesthetic Thinking about Supermodernity

identity; Carmen Pardo, Va, pensiero

by Giuseppe Verdi

tween creator and spectator in The Spectacular Ambiguity of Art. Be-- tween Interpretation and Expression, Separation and Relation, the Self and the Other

ties in Intimacy and Sabotage in the Work of Jodi. - Wishes and Rituals

Identity. Intimacy and Ex-

timacy -

Wound and Blood. Intimacy as theme, support and medium in the visual work of Concha Romeu; Susana

(8)

- WOMANHOUSE: Intimacy, Identity and Domesticy; and Marize Malta, in What does Mona Lisa smell like?

The case for a multisensory history of art based on the collector’s inti-

mate experience -

- artwork demands.

Part 6, Home, again, proposes an approach to drawing as an inti- Eileen Soper: Drawing and Intimacy.

deepen the scholarly and artistic intimate bridges amongst philosophy, art and art history.

Finally, we would like to thank Ricardo Santos, current Director

CFUL Praxis

where the research collected in this book is included; to Fernando In- SEyTA, who designed and produced the beauti- the Center

CFUL NOVA, who always sup-

CFUL, University of Minho, and to SEyTA -

Lisbon, 10 February 2021

(9)

This page intentionally left blank

(10)

PART ONE

WALLS OR BRIDGES

(11)

This page intentionally left blank

(12)

Art or intimacy: assessing a disjunction

Vítor Moura

Universidade do Minho

“I once tried to read Resurrection but couldn’t. You see when Tolstoy just tells a turns his back to the reader then he seems most impressive. Perhaps one day we can talk about this.”

Letter to Norman Malcolm

-

tone.”

terly -

(13)

Vítor Moura 4

- The second strand could be traced back at least to Kant. In the

- share a sensus communis

- -

not say that everyone will to.”

-

may be described at a purely communicational level and perceived as -

-

Immanuel Kant. Critique of Judgment

(14)

-

I don’t with other art.”³

-

3. -

(15)

Vítor Moura 6

-

one who entertains them. And we don’t need to believe that we are in

- --

-

6

sation” that activates comprehension protocols that are quite similar -

1.

- -

4.

5.

6.

.

(16)

ted that the special intimacy established between reader and writer had

else’s “communicative vehicle” in a much more intense way than what - -

-

They both share the notion that communication

latively simple but may also imply sophisticated interpretation mecha--

- -

7. Sur la Lecture Électronique du Québec.

8. Proust. Sur la Lecture

9. Sper-

Mind and Lan- guage

10.

(17)

Vítor Moura 8

the people with which you interact. In a way it is a process similar to --

intentional agenda - --

-

To make sure that we are -

ontology -

-

11.

12. Pourquoi

13.

conceptual analysis.”

(18)

-

- -

tween author and spectator. -

a)

-

- -

14.

15. Pourquoi

(19)

--

- between sender and receiver.

--

-

- -

Blade Runner is constantly -

-

that may not be obvious.

Vítor Moura 10

(20)

b)

-

- nable. -

style -

didactic

-

in Young Mr. Lincoln -

- -

16. Pourquoi

(21)

Vítor Moura 12

-

c)

- and constraints that conditioned the author’s creative process. And

--

because we know that this character will continue to take cortisone as -

17.

-

(22)

d)

-

- . Some pro- -

-

- and particularly the

- -

18. Pourquoi

19.

(23)

- -

- - Funny Games

temporal sequence is altered and its manipulation becomes possible in- makes it more intense while at the same time its irony makes the author

states.

e)

--

-

Vítor Moura 14

(24)

--

-

increased intimacy with the author is attained.

-

--

the obvious.

2.

- -

20.

(25)

As Proust’s distinction between “con--

-

and that one-sidedness also creates a blatant asymmetry between the

à la

The major divide here is then between those who take art to be -

conversation”. This is the position held by Actual Intentionalists who

the real real author.

-

21. -

Paisley.

22.

-

23.

Vítor Moura 16

(26)

conditionalist intentio- nalism

-

anonymous artworks or elusive authors that reduce this position to an Intentional Fallacy.

--

fabula In

-

24.

Reading

25.

(27)

-

reminiscence a

second because there are clear limits to what the real author could be -

it seems very unlikely that someone could merely to be sen-

was

it run

26. -

-

. - -

27. -

Vítor Moura 18

(28)

or directing - ce.

tistic practice as a distinctively concentrated and committed episode -

have reason to believe was controlled by the author was indeed plan-

-

28.

29.

(29)

Bibliography

Booth, Wayne C. The Company We Keep. Ethical Criticism and the Ethics of Reading. Berke- ley: California University Press, 1988.

Carroll, Noël. “Art, intention and conversation.” In Intention & Interpretation, edited by Gary Iseminger, 97-131. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.

Carroll, Noël. “From Real to Reel: Entangled in Nonfiction Film.” In Theorizing the Moving Image, 224-252. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Carroll, Noël. “Fiction, non-fiction, and the film of presumptive assertion: a conceptual analysis.” In Film Theory and Philosophy, edited by Richard Allen e Murray Smith, 173-202. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Currie, Gregory. The Nature of Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Davies, Stephen. “Author’s intentions, literary interpretation, and literary value.”

Philosophical Perspectives on Art, 166-190. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Grice, Paul. “Meaning.” The Philosophical Review 66 (1957): 377–388.

Holiday, John. “Emotional intimacy in literature.” British Journal of Aesthetics 58, nº1 (2018): 1-16.

John, Eileen. “Beauty, Interest, and Autonomy.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti- cism 70, nº 2 (2012): 193-202.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Translated by Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis:

Hackett Publishing Co., 1987.

Kindt, Tom, and Hans Harald Müller. The Implied Author – Concept and Controversy.

Berlin: De Gruyter. 2006.

Levinson, Jerrold. “Music and Negative Emotion.” in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 63, nº4 (October 1982): 327-346.

Levinson, Jerrold. “Artful Intentions.” In Aesthetic Pursuits – Essays in Philosophy of Art, 133-145. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Levinson, Jerrold. “Defending Hypothetical Intentionalism.” Aesthetic Pursuits – Essays in Philosophy of Art, 146-162. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Livingston, Paisley. Art and Intention – A Philosophical Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Lyas, Colin. “The Relevance of the Author’s Sincerity.” In Philosophy and Fiction: Essays Vítor Moura 20

(30)

in Literary Aesthetics, edited by Peter Lamarque, 17-37. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1983.

Meltzoff, Andrew. “Infant imitation after a 1-week delay: Long term memory for novel acts and multiple stimuli.” Developmental Psychology 24, nº 4 (July 1988): 470-476.

Pignocchi, Alessandro. Pourquoi aime-t-on un film?. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2015.

Proust, Marcel. Sur la Lecture. Québec: La Bibliothèque Électronique du Québec Rivette, Jacques. “De l’abjection.” Cahiers du Cinéma 120 (1961).

Sparshott, Francis. “Vision and Dream in the Cinema.” Philosophic Exchange 2, nº1 (1971): 111-122.

Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. “Pragmatics, modularity and mind-reading.” Mind and Language 17, ns. 1-2 (2002): 3-23.

Wallace, David Foster. “The Salon Interview: David Foster Wallace.” Interview by Laura Miller in Conversations with David Foster Wallace, edited by Stephen J. Burn, 58-65.

Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2012.

Wilson, George. “On film narrative and narrative meaning.” In Film Theory and Phi- losophy, edited by Richard Allen and Murray Smith, 219-238. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

(31)

This page intentionally left blank

(32)

PART TWO

WORDS AND IDEAS

(33)

This page intentionally left blank

(34)

The total relation: poetry, real, and intimacy in António Ramos Rosa

Helena Costa Carvalho¹

CLEPUL, University of Lisbon

Não existe espectáculo para a visão mais íntima [...].²

António Ramos Rosa, Ciclo do Cavalo A realidade exterior passou a ser a matéria mais íntima e mais pura da relação total […].³

António Ramos Rosa, O Aprendiz Secreto

4 -

5 6;

1.

2. -

-

3. -

4. António Ramos Rosa, Boca Incompleta

5. Gra-

vitações (Lisboa: Litexa,

6. No

Calcanhar do Vento

(35)

Helena Costa Carvalho 26

-

1. Writing where the word is not yet spoken: poetic word and real

8

- -

third voices

7. Génese seguido de Constela-

ções

8. This meditation

-

- Martin Heidegger: Off the Beaten Track

9. -

Relâmpago,

(36)

Árvore Tree in Poesia, Liberdade Livre Poetry, Free Freedom

-

- -

--

10. O Grito

Claro

Árvore

11. Poesia, Liberdade Livre (Lisboa:

12. Ibid

13. Ibid

(37)

-

;

-

- -

14. Ibid

15. Correspondance: 1862-1871, 5^th

16. Oeuvres

17. Público -

- Público Mil Folhas

18.

A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I

(38)

-

how and what

A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I Modern Poetry and the Interrogation of the Real I

- -

19.

António Ramos Rosa, -

Colóquio: Revista de Artes e Letras

20. -

Rosa, A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I

(39)

-

22

opus

-

- in L’Espace Littéraire

23 -

24

25

26 -

Gravitações Gravitations -

21. Poesia,

Liberdade Livre

22. A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I

23. L’Espace Littéraire

24. Ibid

25. António Ramos Rosa, A Construção do Corpo

26. Atemwende

(40)

non-formula- ted

-

-formulated non-

A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I:

non-formulated, it -

in this sensing

27. Gravitações

28. Ibid

29. A Imobilidade Fulminante

30.

A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I

31. António Ramos Rosa, Génese seguido de Constelações

(41)

32

33 -

2. The total relation, or the (re)construction of an intimacy that

Génese seguido de Constelações Ge- nesis followed by Constellations

34 35 -

32. Volante Verde

33. A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I

34. Génese seguido de Constelações

35. “António Ramos

-

--

-

(42)

-

36

- --

-

A Parede Azul The Blue Wall

-

Letras Co(n) m Vida

36. A Parede Azul: Estudos sobre Poesia e Artes Plásticas

37. Ibid

38.

Poesia, Liberdade Livre

39.

A Parede Azul

(43)

O Aprendiz Secreto The Secret Apprentice

-

topos -

Volante Verde Green Steering Wheel -

, “the

42 third state

40.

Ibid -

41. O Aprendiz Secreto (

42. Ibid.

(44)

43

Volante Verde

-

44

45

locus total relation

-

Árvore, as

46

43.

- Ibid.

44.

Rosa, Volante Verde

45. Jornal

de Letras, Artes e Ideias

46.

António Ramos Rosa, “Hora Entendida Árvore:

Folhas de Poesia

(45)

-

References:

Blanchot, Maurice. L’Espace Littéraire. Paris: Gallimard, 1955.

Bréchon, Robert. “António Ramos Rosa: O Silêncio e o Grito”. Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, 2 Março 1982: 6-7.

Celan, Paul. Atemwende. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982 [1967].

Heidegger, Martin. “Why Poets?”. In Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes (ed.), Martin Heidegger: Off the Beaten Track, 200-241. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Lourenço, Eduardo. “Palavra com Poeta Dentro”. Relâmpago, n.º 5, Outubro 1999: 7-8.

Mallarmé, Stéphane. Correspondance: 1862-1871, 5.ª ed., org. Henri Mondor. Paris: Gal- limard, 1959.

Real, Miguel. “António Ramos Rosa. A Palavra Poética Basta-se a Si Mesma”. Letras Co(n)m Vida, n.º 4, 2.º sem. 2001. Lisboa: CLEPUL/Gradiva: 207-10.

Rimbaud, Arthur. Oeuvres. Paris: Pléiade, 1983.

Rosa, António Ramos. “Hora Entendida, de Maria da Encarnação Baptista” [critical review]. Árvore: Folhas de Poesia, n.º 1, Outono 1951: 69-71.

Rosa, António Ramos. Poesia, Liberdade Livre. Lisboa: Moraes Editora, 1962.

Rosa, António Ramos. “Algumas Considerações sobre Poesia e Arte Modernas”.

Colóquio: Revista de Artes e Letras, 22 Fevereiro 1963: 44-46.

Rosa, António Ramos. A Construção do Corpo. Lisboa: Portugália, 1969.

Rosa, António Ramos. Boca Incompleta. Lisboa: Arcádia, 1977.

Rosa, António Ramos. A Poesia Moderna e a Interrogação do Real I. Lisboa: Arcádia, 1979.

Rosa, António Ramos. Gravitações. Lisboa: Litexa, 1983.

Rosa, António Ramos. Volante Verde. Lisboa: Moraes Editora, 1986.

Rosa, António Ramos. No Calcanhar do Vento. Coimbra: Centelha, 1987.

Rosa, António Ramos, “Fui Sempre Descrente de Mim Mesmo” (interviewer: Fran- cisco Belard), Expresso, supp. a revista cultura, 19 Novembro 1988: 46-49.

Rosa, António Ramos. A Parede Azul: Estudos sobre Poesia e Artes Plásticas. Lisboa: Cami- nho, 1991.

Rosa, António Ramos. A Imobilidade Fulminante. Porto: Campo das Letras, 1998.

Rosa, António Ramos. O Aprendiz Secreto. Vila Nova de Famalicão: Quasi Edições, 2001.

Rosa, António Ramos, and Hélia Correia. “Um Poema é Sempre uma Heresia” [talk with Alexandra Lucas Coelho]. Público, supp. Mil Folhas, 23 Outubro 2004: 5-8.

Rosa, António Ramos. Génese seguido de Constelações. Lisboa: Roma Editora, 2005.

(46)

Kafka: modernism and intimacy

Carlos João Correia

University of Lisbon

According to Malcolm Bradbury, Kafka is the “most modern of modern writers”¹

to Joyce’s Ulysses or Virginia Woolf’s Waves, Kafka’s writing appears disarmingly simple, if not cultivated childishness – “perfect puerility”

–, as Bataille points out in The Literature and Evil²

of both style and content, Kafka’s work is one of the most innovative us³

the artist who comes nearest to bearing the same kind of relation to our

4

no other a literary style that we might call dreamlike realism, the pre-

The Trial, The Metamorphosis or The Castle is the everyday world;

the courts described are very similar to those we know: crushed with papers and bureaucracy, forcing claimants to walk long lines and corri-

1.

2.

3.

4.

(47)

Carlos João Correia 38

world of The Castle

matic situations, in some cases even ridiculous, such as washing scenes -

5

Uncanny the writer underlines in initiating many of the two stories by Meta-

morphosis The Trial, wakes

up and still lying in bed sees himself being arrested, having never done

facing the most modern of all modernists is the content of the Kafkian crisis” in Frank Kermode’s expression⁶

that it was in Modernism that the “psychopathologies of everyday life”

emerged - to name the title of a work by Freud – by the discovery of the only shows a type of literature based on dreams and the unconscious but explores how none other - through a tragic, comic style, another of the unique characteristics of modernist literature - of the progressive disintegration of the intimacy

- as if it were a photograph - the form of this disintegration, the writer’s work reinforces the split, the radical rupture between subjectivity and the world, as well as the split between the experience of ourselves and - utmost dispossession, the null answer, far from declaring the question

7 When so- What is utterly frightening about the writer’s work - particularly in The Trial - is that the worldview that it gives us has an unwavering shows us absurd situations that only happen in our worst dreams, in our The Trial

5.

6.

7.

(48)

The idea of disintegration and fragmentation of intimacy is evi- dent: a travelling salesman becomes, in The Metamorphosis, an insect;

The Trial, a quiet civil servant, is accused in his bed for a crime he does not know very well what is the leading cause of his

The Castle

his profession and is constantly humiliated by the villagers and Castle The Burrow shattered by his fear; the son of The Judgement, condemned by his father - metaphor of the law meone guilty, who feels guilty without knowing why, but who claims - his innocence in an active - in The Trial - or passive, in The Metamor- phosis

- habit of disregarding his son’s friendships, and in particular, his acting Metamorphosis The

moments is found in another tale, previously mentioned, The Judg-

ment -

fka tells us: “This story, The Judgement

8

crepit older man, prostrate, practically blind and deaf becomes, with -

8. “

werden kann” (Kafka Tagebücher

(49)

his accusation to his son, a man endowed with inexhaustible physical

9

- The Son

America, where Kafka tells the story of the exile of a sixteen-year-old on the American continent by the Court and the Castle, in Kafka’s two most famous novels (The Trial and The Castle

These literary texts, far from being an unconscious and subliminal

us by Kafka himself, whether in his Diaries Letter to the Father

we want, and nothing prevents us, we can see in all of Kafka’s work

by his robustness, his self-control, contrasts with Kafka himself, being or to his presence and physical and psychological ambition pursued by

known that something had been done wrong” because “whatever you

10

which Kafka is educated still has a strong resemblance to the situation The Trial

9.

, “Das Urteil”, GW

10. “Man wurde gewissermaßen schon bestraft, ehe man noch wußte, daß man etwas Briefe an den Vater, GW ,

(50)

compared with one of the central passages of The Trial, namely when in the Letter to the Father, Kafka mentions the existence of a “feeling

11

social and historical context of the beginning of this century? The interpretation of Kafka’s work as a denunciation of a concentrationary and

in the face of a power that persecutes him despotically without the indi- - himself”¹², in which the space of privacy is occupied by the power,

with its almost centenary and absent emperor, with their communities, separated by language, race, religion, usages and traditions, and in par-

13

phetic denunciation of the totalitarian and concentrationary universes -

14

Metamorphosis The

morphosis relates to the writer’s word to portray the result of its trans--

enormous insect, but whose precise nature Kafka purposely leaves in suspense, as evidenced by the writer’s demand for his editor that this

Ungeziefer

Latin languages as it ambiguously expresses the ideas of insect, co-

11.

, Briefe an den Vater, GW

12.

13.

14.

(51)

of a profoundly parasitic and abject being, so it is not surprising that it tale and in all of Kafka’s work, one might discover the experience of a Jewish ritual described in Leviticus

not only for the posthumous editing of Kafka’s major works but also for the reworking of novels that Kafka never completed, such as The Trial, The Castle, and America

the profound meaning of Kafka’s work must be viewed in the light of a religious view of the world, rooted in Brod’s own words in the Book of Job¹⁵

enigmatic nature of man’s condition in the world are intelligible only to this interpretation, Kafka wanted to point out the radical incommen- surability between the evidence of what “is indestructible in itself” to derstood as a parable or religious allegory of man’s precarious situation -

16 We know that for Judaism, the Torah, which means “the Law”, is the fundamental object of reli-

- The Kafkian work would only be thinkable from the Jewish cul-

surability of the Trial, or the whims and designs of the Lords of The -

Castle Book of Job, that

The whole history of The Trial -

-

15.

16.

(52)

same tale of The Metamorphosis

search for approval and recognition from a World that has suddenly be-

Kafka’s work would be both a portrait of infernal guilt but at the - that condemns him, for even at the very moment of his death, he still

Before the Law (the preferred tale, which is the key to reading The Trial

a bright glow even at the end, in The Castle the last sentence of its The Metamorphosis (one of his to have a place under the couch, for his little walks in the freshness of

17 Kafka’s work would thus appear in this religious reading as a mixture of a theology of despair damental traits of Kafkian writing is to skillfully manage the different -

hope and a doomed world, a universe forever closed and simultaneou-

18

-

problem when at the end of The Trial, he tells us: “The writings are un- changing, and the interpretations are often the expression of the despair ging in labyrinthine Kafkology as Milan Kundera points out? Would it - not be more prudent to refrain from any interpretation by accepting the principle formulated by Jorge Luis Borges that the pleasure of reading Kafka precedes all interpretation? Quite possibly, though, curiously,

19 excellent interpretations of

17.

18.

19.

(53)

ding based on The Trial -

us ask ourselves: What is the most substantial penalty any court can

courts, it is known the reason (whether the accusation is fair or unfair, -

carries the world in our shoulders - like Atlas -, as if the world would

20

For Kafka, man is dust and ashes, but at the same time, the world

20. Ionesco 1963: 60.

(54)

REFERENCES

Antunes, M. 1980. “Kafka e o «Processo»” in Occasionália - Homens e Ideias de Ontem e de Hoje. Lisboa: Multinova.

Auden, W.H. 2002. “The Wandering Jew” (1941) in The Complete Works of W.H.

Auden. Prose. Vol. II. 1939-1948. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Princeton:

Princeton University Press.

Bataille, G. 1976. La Littérature et le Mal. Paris: Gallimard.

Blanchot, M. 1968. “La lecture de Kafka” in De Kafka à Kafka. Paris: Galli- mard.

Bradbury, M. 1989. The Modern World. Ten Great Writers. London: Viking.

Borges, J.L. 2007. “Kafka y sus Precursores” in Otras Inquisiciones. Ed. Jorge García. Barcelona: Destino/ Emecé.

Brod, M. 1945. Franz Kafka. Paris: Gallimard.

Ionesco, E. 1963. Le Roi se meurt. Paris: Gallimard.

Kafka, F. 1989. Gesammelte Werke [GW]. Hrsg. Max Brod. Frankfurt aM: Fis- cher.

Kermode, F. 2000. The Sense of an Ending. Studies in the Theory of Fiction with a New Epilogue. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. 2ed.

Kundera, M. 1988. The Art of the Novel. Tr. Linda Asher. New York: Grove Press.

Ricoeur, P. 1988. “L’identité narrative”. Esprit 7-8, 140-141: 295-304.

Steiner, G. 1996. No Passion Spent. Essays 1978-1996. London/Boston: Faber &

Faber.

(55)

This page intentionally left blank

(56)

The persistence of the model of subjective reflectivity in Adorno’s aesthetics

Sílvia Bento

Institute of Philosophy / University of Porto

Menke’s reading of Adorno’s aesthetics: the Kantian framework The book Die Souveränität der Kunst. Ästhetische Erfahrung nach Adorno und Derrida (1988), written by Christoph Menke, offers a philosophical analysis concerning negativity of art [Negativität der Kunst], a relevant aesthetic conception developed by Theodor W.

Adorno. Menke’s book proposes to discuss the Negativität der Kunst by expounding and clarifying the singularity and distinctive character of the aesthetic experience and its modes of logical conceptualisation in Adorno’s philosophy of art: according to Menke, the aesthetic experience of the work of art produces an occasion for the dissolution of the subjective modes of logical conceptualisation – the negation [Negation] of the subjective logical processes is, as Menke asserts, the fundamental purpose of the aesthetic experience.

Kant’s aesthetics forms the heart of Menke’s positions on Adorno’s philosophy of art. The paragraphs extracted from Kritik der Urteilskraft concerning the formulation of the judgment of taste as an aesthetic judgment¹ [ästhetisches Urteil] are continuously evoked by Menke. The Adornian negative aesthetics [Negativitätästhetik], as Menke denominates it, is incessantly interpreted through Kantian eyes:

in Menke’s book, the analysis of the negativity of art is philosophically

1. See Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment, ed. by Paul Guyer, trans.

by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002),

§1, 89-90.

(57)

Sílvia Bento 48

– rigorously, the negativity of the aesthetic pleasure [ästhetisches Verg- nügen]; in fact, the Kantian feeling of pleasure is theoretically trans- posed to the context of Adorno’s aesthetics under the designation of negative pleasure [negatives Vergnügen].

In Menke’s reading, the Adornian negative pleasure is analysed according to the Kantian aesthetic framework: in the “Analytic of the Faculty of Aesthetic Judgment”, the feeling of pleasure which accom- in its potential of developing a free play [freies Spiel] of the faculties² and a formal subjective conformity³ [formale subjektive Zweckmäßi- gkeit], is accomplished in the total absence of the logical preponderan- ce of the understanding [Verstand] and its epistemological purposes⁴. The possibility of interruption or suspension of the non-aesthetic subjective modes of logical categorisation forms, as Menke elucidates, the touchstone of the negative pleasure involving aesthetic experience.

Adorno’s (and Horkheimer’s) positions regarding the concept of culture industry [Kulturindustrie], as presented in Dialektik der Au- fklärung (1944), deserve extended treatment in Menke’s reading: du- ring the experience of reception of the products offered by the Kultu- rindustrie, the pleasure of amusement [Lust des Amusements] or the sensual pleasure [sinnliche Vergnügen] – a type of pleasure which object under the non-aesthetic modes of categorization – is regarded as a spurious or adulterated pleasure, and, accordingly, non-authentic aesthetic pleasure⁵. The authentic aesthetic pleasure [ästhetische

2. See Kant, Critique…, §9, 102-103.

3. See Kant, Critique…, §11, 106.

4. See Kant, Critique…, §15, 111-112.

5. In fact, the positions of Adorno and Horkheimer concerning culture industry do not include explicit considerations on pleasure as an aesthetic issue: «Even during their leisure time, consumers must orient themselves according to the unity of production.

The active contribution which Kantian schematism still expected of subjects – that

customer. According to Kantian schematism, a secret mechanism within the psyche now been unraveled. […] For the consumer there is nothing left to classify, since the only do hit songs, stars, and soap operas conform to types recurring cyclically as rigid is itself derived from those types. The details become interchangeable. The brief in- terval sequence which has proved catchy in a hit song, the hero’s temporary disgrace which he accepts as a “good sport,” the wholesome slaps the heroine receives from the strong hand of the male star, his plain-speaking abruptness toward the pampered heiress, are, like all the details, ready-made cliches, to be used here and there as de-

(58)

Vergnügen] is, as Menkes explains, a negative process; in a word: it is the process of non-identity between object and concept, in which the automatism of the subjective logical modes of categorisation is suspen- ded. According to Menke, the aesthetic pleasure originates a singular logical situation, characterized by the non-identity between the artistic object and the conceptual element: the authentic aesthetic pleasure is a negative aesthetic pleasure – the aesthetic pleasure [ästhetische Verg- nügen], as developed by Kant in his Kritik der Urteilskaft, provides the philosophical model for Menke’s positions on Adorno’s aesthetics.

It should be observed that in Adorno’s aesthetics the pleasure of amusement is taken as an “identity, “imitation”, or “repetition” expe- rienced in a “state of diversion”; it is the pleasure which arises from the “automatic” recognition of something already known. Hence, the negativity of the authentic aesthetic experience represents, according

raison d’être

the outcome can invariably be predicted at the star – who will be rewarded, punished, forgotten – and in light music the prepared ear can always guess the continuation choice of words in a short story must not be tampered with. The gags and effects are no less calculated than their framework. They are managed by special experts, Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment. Philosophical Fragments, University Press, 2002), 98-99.

In German: «An der Einheit der Produktion soll der Freizeitler sich ausrichten. Die Leistung, die der kantische Schematismus noch von den Subjekten erwartet hatte, nämlich die sinnliche Mannigfaltigkeit vorweg auf die fundamentalen Begriffe zu beziehen, wird dem Subjekt von der Industrie abgenommen. Sie betreibt den Sche- matismus als ersten Dienst am Kunden. In der Seele sollte ein geheimer Mechanis- mus wirken, der die unmittelbaren Daten bereits so präpariert, daß sie ins System der Reinen Vernunft hineinpassen. Das Geheimnis ist heute enträtselt.[...] Für den - Schlagern, Stars, Seifenopern zyklisch als starre Invarianten durchgehalten, sonder geleitet. Die Details werden fungibel. Die kurze Intervallfolge, die in einem Schlager - als einprägsam sich bewährte, die vorübergehende Blamage des Helden, die er als good sport zu ertragen weiß, die zuträglichen Prügel, die die Geliebte von der starken Hand des männlichen Stars empfängt, seine rüde Sprödheit gegen die verwöhnte Erbin sind wie alle Einzelheiten fertige Clichés, beliebig hier und dort zu verwenden, bestätigen, indem sie es zusammensetzen, ist ihr ganzes Leben. Durchweg ist dem Film sogleich anzusehen, wie er ausgeht, we belohnt, bestraft, vergessen wird, und vollends in der leichten Musik kann das präparierte Ohr nach den ersten Takten des Schlagers die Fortsetzung raten und fühlt sich glücklich, wenn es wirklich so ein- trifft. An der durchschnittlichen Wortzahl der Short Story ist nicht zu rütteln. Selbst gags, Effekte und Witze sind kalkuliert wie ihr Gerüst. Sie werden von besonderen Fachleuten verwaltet, und ihre schmale Mannigfaltigkeit läßt grundsätzlich im Büro Dialektik der Aufklärung.

Philosophische Fragmente (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 2013), 132-133.

(59)

Sílvia Bento 50

to Adorno, the dissolution of the automatic repetition or identity involving the sensuous pleasure. Evoking this Adornian aesthetic position, Menke emphasises the negative character of the aesthetic or artistic pleasure: the “threshold between artistic and preartistic experience” is -- chanism” or “automatic repetition”, aesthetic pleasure arises in a negative process.⁶

In Menke’s reading, the negative pleasure – the authentic aesthetic pleasure – arises from the suspension of the subjective purposiveness towards logical identity; it is the negation of the «hybris ⁷, which aspires to convert the non-identity into logical identity. Menke’s reading is enriched by philosophical considerations regarding the formal subjective determinations manifested in the aesthetic experience aesthetics on Adorno – hence, the Adornian positions on negative pleasure are regarded as an aesthetic perspective which deliberately enhan- ces the interruption or suspension of the subjective modes of logical categorisation, rather than the preponderance of the artistic object and its properties or qualities. According to Menke, the emergence of the negative aesthetic pleasure is the fundamental element of the aesthetic experience of the work of art, analysed as a process of deactivating the automatism of the non-aesthetic modes of logical categorisation. The philosophical assessment of aesthetic experience and the correlative aesthetic pleasure is proclaimed as a condition which makes the autonomy of the aesthetic experience and aesthetic judgment – and, ultima- tely, the autonomy of the aesthetic thought as a distinctive mode of the subjective rationality⁸ - possible. Considering the Kantian framework

6. Christoph Menke, The Sovereignity of Art. Aesthetic Negativity in Adorno and Derrida,

Vergnügen am “automatischen” Wiedererkennen des bereits Bekannten. Auf diesen Grundzug automatischer Wiederholung oder Identität im sinnlichen Vergnügen rich- Die “Schwelle zwischen der künstlerischen und der vorkünstlerischen Erfahrung”

sinnliche Vergnügen durch die “automatische Wiederholung” gekennzeichnet ist, Die Souveränität der Kunst. Ästhetische Erfahrung nach Adorno und Derrida (Frank- furt am Main: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft, 1991), 28-29.

7. Menke, The Sovereignity…, 30.

In German: «Hybris des Geistes». Menke, Die Souveränität…, 47.

8. Regarding the Kantian conception of autonomy of the aesthetics, it could be per- tinent to consider the positions advanced by the English philosopher Peter Osborne in his book Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art (2013): «[...]

(60)

presented by Menke – in effect, as regards the concept of subjectivity [Subjecktivität], Menke continuously overlooks the philosophical in- compatibility between Kant and Adorno –, the Adornian conception re- concerning the negativity of the aesthetic experience of artistic objects.

It has been seen that a stereoscopic reading of Adorno’s writings provides an understanding of his concept of aesthetic negativity that is compatible with the basic conditions of aesthetic autonomy as formulated in Kantian aesthetics. The concept of aesthetic negativity can be interpreted as Adorno’s suggestion for explicating the process of aesthetic experience, a process out of which aesthetic pleasure arises by negating understanding. […] negative aesthetics describes aesthetic experience as a negative event [...]; aesthetic experience is the self-imposed subversion of the

art judgements (such as ‘this is a beautiful painting’) – are explicitly excluded by Kant from ‘pure’ aesthetic judgements of taste. That is, Kant excludes from aes- thetics precisely those judgements that constitute the main part of the critique of taste, historically, as a critical discourse, as an effect of the transcendentalism of his method. […] For Kant, artistic beauty can never be what he calls a ‘free’ or ‘purely aesthetic’ beauty (at least, not qua artistic beauty), but only an ‘accessory’ or ‘adher- ent beauty’. […] There is thus a conceptual gap between art and aesthetic that cannot be adequately bridged within the terms of Kant’s thought. In so far as ‘aesthetics’ is taken as the name for the philosophical treatment of art, we are confronted with a new and equally ironic ‘ignorance of the thing and of the language’: aesthetics’ principled ignorance of art qua art. For Kant readily acknowledges that ‘aesthetic’ itself cannot distinguish art from nature: art becomes aesthetically pure only when it appears ‘as if

simultaneously expanded ‘aesthetic’, giving it a central role in the metaphysics of the or ‘autonomous’ entity. ‘Aesthetic art’ is the contradictory result of the negotiation of the impasse. The nineteenth and twentieth century tradition of ‘art as aesthetic’

– artistic aestheticism – covertly perpetuated by the very term ‘aesthetics’, when used to refer to philosophy of art, rests upon a self-contradictory absolutization of Kant’s conception of ‘aesthetic art’. Contrary to Hegel’s acceptance of it as a mere

‘name’, the term ‘aesthetics’ functions as much more than a name here: it seals and legitimates the exclusion of art’s other aspects from the philosophical concept of art, product of mere nature’ and hence as the object of pure judgements of taste. […] This ignorance of language – the idea that ‘aesthetics’ is an appropriate term to designate the philosophical treatment of art – sums up the ignorance of the thing: ‘art’. Even writers as sophisticated in their reading of German idealism as Andrew Bowie and Jay Bernstein, for example, have contributed to the perpetuation of this myth to the level of a philosophical commonplace through their use of the phrase ‘aesthetic autonomy’ to refer to the autonomy of art. Yet Kant’s work cannot, in principle, provide the conceptual ground for an account of the autonomy of the artwork, since it has no account of (nor interest in) the ontological distinctiveness of the work of art. That Anywhere Or Not At All.

Philosophy of Contemporary Art

(61)

Sílvia Bento 52

understanding that is attempted in this experience.⁹

The concept of negative aesthetics according to Menke: the af-

In drawing attention to the dimension of art’s occlusion, Menke Bergson’s philosophy and the positions on literary theory developed by the Russian Formalism. As Menke asserts, the modes of the aesthetic judgment represent non-automatic temporal processes; in contrast to non-aesthetic modes of conceptual identity, regarded as atemporal mechanisms operating under the logic of automatic repetition (given the immediacy of the formulation of the logical result), the processuality and temporality are the constitutive elements of the aesthetic experience. The expression automatic repetition [automatische Wiederholung]

– developed in Bergson’s theory of memory¹⁰ and theoretically trans- posed into the aesthetic context by Viktor Shklovsky– is continuously evoked by Menke in order to describe the aesthetic experience, especially the potential of suspending the logical mechanisms operating by automatic repetition. According to Menke, the aesthetic experience is a process determined by temporality – the durée¹¹, a Bergsonian con- words, the formulation of the logical result based on the perfect identi- tary subsumption of the particular object under the universal concept.

12, determined by non-identity. The aesthetic concept of otstranenie – as elaborated by the Russian Formalism, especially by Viktor Shklovsky

9. Menke, The Sovereignity…, 25-26.

In German: «Es hat sich gezeigt, daß eine stereoskopische Lektüre von Adornos Tex-

Explikation des ästhetisches Vergnügen entsteht, indem er Verstehen negiert. […]

[...] ästhetische Erfahrung ist die Subversion des in ihr versuchten Verstehens durch Die Souveränität…, 44-45.

10. See Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory

11. See Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will. An Essay on the Immediate Data of Con- sciousness

12. Menke, The Sovereignity…,33.

In German: « Die Souveränität…, 52.

(62)

13, and translated as defamiliarization or estrangement – is implicitly used by Menke.

Rhumbs – «La

14 – deserves nition of poetry, the object of the aesthetic experience is not the imme--

15. element – it is rather a process described as a hesitation or vacilla- [ ] and the meaning [Bedeutung] developed, in turn, under rigorous rules. Regarding the positions expressed by the Russian For- malism, as meticulously outlined by Menke, the procedures of the aes-

16

as theoretically developed by Roman Jakobson, is evoked by Menke in order to draw attention to the context of absence of a perfect con- nection between the two dimensions of the semiotic representation, the by Menke, emphasises the artistic object’s oscillation between its con- determinate meaning, and, antagonistically, its condition of mere ma- teriality. The discussion regarding the determination of the aesthetic trates the aesthetic dimension of negativity involving the aesthetic ex-- perience.

-

13. Russian Formalism: Four Es-

says1965), 3-24.

14. Paul Valéry, Rhumbs, in The Collected Works of Paul Valéry, ed. by Jackson Mat- thews, trans. by Stuart Gilbert, Volume 14: Analects - eton University Press, 2015), 211.

15. Menke, The Sovereignity…,33.

In German: « Bedeutung». Menke, Die Souveränität…,

52.

16. Style in

Language, edited by T. A. Sebeok (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1968), 350-377.

(63)

- exists in vacillation between its two poles can only be made comprehensible in

17

This is the chief philosophical question expressed by Menke: in studying the fundamental aesthetic conceptions developed by Adorno, Menke’s reading is concerned with establishing perspectives on the singularity of the aesthetic thought as a distinctive subjective discourse. Following a Kantian framework, Menke intends to reveal the in- negative aesthetics: in fact, from Menke’s point of view, Adorno’s negative aesthetics expresses a contemporary contribution to the philosophical debate on the (possibility of different and distinctive) «discourses within the pluralistic

18. The negative aesthetics, as elaborated by Adorno, should be analysed according to a twofold possibility: as Menke asserts, the aesthetics – in its negativity – forms not only an autonomous, separable and distinctive discourse, but also a pre-emi- nent mode of dissolution and refutation of the non-aesthetic discourses assumed under the domain of subjective rationality. The sovereignty of art [die Souveränität der Kunst] – the title of Menke’s readings of Adorno’s aesthetics – could be regarded as a designation intended to illustrate the negative character of aesthetic experience and aesthetic rationality. Sovereignty of art is, in a sense, a hyperbolized expression of the notions negativity of art or autonomy of art.

- tion of modern art in Adorno, of art as both one of several autonomous discourses and a sovereign subversion of the rationality of all discourses.¹⁹

17. Menke, The Sovereignity…, 45-46.

-

seinen beiden Polen besteht, kann nur aus dem ästhetischen Vollzugsmodus der da- Menke, Die Souveränität…, 64-66.

18. Menke, The Sovereignity…, vii.

In German: « -

ke, Die Souveränität…, 9.

19. Menke, The Sovereignity…, xi.

-

Sílvia Bento 54

(64)

And:

Whereas the autonomy model confers relative validity upon aesthetic experience, the sovereignty model considers aesthetic experience a medium for the dissolution of the rule of nonaesthetic reason, the vehicle for an experientially enacted critique of reason.²⁰

Enigmatic character and Truth-content of ‘work of art’

The discussion concerning the sense of art’s occlusion represents an important theoretical element in Menke’s positions on Adorno’aesthetics. Menke’s reading is delineated according to a distinctively Adornian perspective: the enigmatic character [Rätselcha- rakter] of the work of art. In Adorno’s words: «All artworks – and art

21. This perspective is analysed by Menke as the substance of the aesthetic experience, the central element of the subjective experience of the work of art. The theoretical emphasis given by Menke to questions about the unintelligibility [Unverstän- dlichkeit] or the incomprehensibility [ ] involving the aesthetic experience illustrates the philosophical purpose of his reading: to lay emphasis on the negative – enigmatic – character of the aesthetic experience of art.

If the concept of [Zweckmäßigkeit] is applicable to art,

22. Works of art have their own end [Zweck] in

dnis der doppelten Bestimmung der modernen Kunst bei Adorno: Sie ist ein autono- mer Diskurs neben anderen und zugleich eine souveräne Subversion der Vernunft

Die Souveränität…, 13.

20. Menke, The Sovereignity…, viii.

In German: «Beschreibt das Autonomiemodell die ästhetische Erfahrung als geltung- srelativ, so das Souveränitätsmodell deshalb als absolut, weil ihr Vollzug zugleich das gelingende Funktionieren der nicht-ästhetischen Diskurse sprengt. Das Sou- der außerästhetisch herrschenden Vernunft, die Instanz einer erfahrend vollzogenen

Die Souveränität…, 10.

21. Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, trans. by Robert Hullot-Kentor (London/

In German: « -

no, Ästhetische Theorie (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft, 2003), 182.

22. Adorno, Aesthetic…, 124.

(65)

Sílvia Bento 56

themselves – works of art are ²³; they are

deprived of positive purposes, for their internal logic and complexion an-sich, an entity in-itself – despite the inexorability of its dimension an enigma [Rätsel]. Being an enigma is the purpose of the work of art.

the enigmatic charac- ter of the work of art are not the German philosopher’s last word on the subject; in fact, according to Adorno, the enigmatic character of the work of art illustrates its mode of demarcation of the empirical reality and, consequently, its determination as a philosophical object.

From Adorno’s point of view, the question of the enigmatic character of the work of art is intimately connected to the philosophical positions concerning the truth content [Wahrheitsgehalt] of the artistic object, an Adornian concept repeatedly disregarded by Menke: the confrontation with the enigmatic character of the artistic object – a central element of the aesthetic experience – requires philosophical thought and its possibility of determining the truth content of the work of art.

In contrast to Menke’s interpretation, we venture to assert that the terminus of the aesthetic experience is not the subjective confrontation with the enigmatic character of the work of art, which presupposes the dissolution of the non-aesthetic modes of discursive thought. On the contrary, the artistic object demands the solution of its enigma, impo- sing itself as a philosophical object. The theoretical convergence between the solution of the enigmatic character of art and the possibility of philosophical determination of its truth content is to be analysed forms the chief axis of Adorno’s aesthetics.

The demand of artworks that they be understood, that their content be grasped, is

24

And:

In German: «Bestimmtheit des Unbestimmten Ästhetische…, 188.

Ästhetische…, 188.

In German: «Die Forderung der Kunstwerke, verstanden zu werden dadurch, daß ihr Adorno, Ästhe- tische…, 185.

(66)

By demanding its solution, the enigma points to its truth content. It can only be Although no artworks can be reduced to rationalistic determinations, as is the case with what art judges, each artwork through the neediness implicit in its enigmati-

- zed out of Hamlet; this in no way impinges on its truth content. [...] Artworks, especially those of the highest dignity, await their interpretation. The claim that there is nothing to interpret in them, that they simply exist, would erase the demarcation line between art and nonart.²⁵

Adorno’s aesthetics as Philosophie der Kunst

man aesthetic tradition. However, the proper assessment of Adorno’s - aesthetics as philosophy of art [Philosophie der Kunst], which includes the assumption of the concept of art [Kunst] as a philosophical concept and the proclamation of art as a domain of truth [Wahrheit] and emi- nent philosophical object, cannot be entirely elucidated within a Kan- tian framework. In contrast to the conclusions advanced by Menke, we propose to establish a perspective on Adorno’s philosophy of art which concept of truth content [Wahrheitsgehalt] of art.

Adorno’s aesthetics is, in effect, philosophy of art – Philosophie der Kunst. It seems to us that trying to analyse Adorno’s philosophy of art within the categories derived from Kant’s aesthetics involves an inca- pacity for considering the most important aesthetic questions raised by Adorno, especially the philosophical development of the aesthetic concept of truth-concept of art, and, correlatively, the aesthetic asses-

26. In attempting to expose the

In German: «Indem es die Lösung verlangt, verweist es auf den Wahrheitsgehalt. Der

ihm Geurteilten aufgeht, wendet gleichwohl ein jegliches durch die Bedürftigkeit seines Rätselcharakters sich an deutende Vernunft. Keine Aussage wäre aus dem Hamlet herauszupressen; dessen Wahrheitsgehalt ist darum nicht geringer. […] Die Werke, vollends die oberster Dignität, warten auf ihre Interpretation. Daß es an ihnen nichts zu interpretieren gäbe, daß sie einfach da wären, radierte die Demarkationsli-

Adorno, Ästhetische…, 193.

Aesthetics, Art and Intimacy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

This page intentionally left blank

PART ONE

WALLS OR BRIDGES

This page intentionally left blank

Art or intimacy: assessing a disjunction

This page intentionally left blank

PART TWO

WORDS AND IDEAS

This page intentionally left blank

The total relation: poetry, real, and intimacy in António Ramos Rosa

Kafka: modernism and intimacy

This page intentionally left blank

The persistence of the model of subjective reflectivity in Adorno’s aesthetics