Date post: | 28-Nov-2014 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | colinrolfe |
View: | 1,561 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Horkheimer & Adorno “The Culture Industry”Colin Rolfe & Tamatha Williams
“To Write Poetry After Auschwitz
is Barbaric” (Adorno)
“TO WRITE POETRY AFTER AUSCHWITZ IS BARBARIC”
(ADORNO)
Max Horkheimer Theodor Adorno
Both born in Germany around the turn of the century
Both were Marxist scholars & philosophers
Max Horkheimer Theodor Adorno
Horkheimer fled Nazi Germany to Los Angeles
Adorno was denied a teaching position at a university because he was Jewish.
Dialectic of the Enlightenment written 1944, published 1947
The Culture Industry
“Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubts about the social utility of the finished products is removed” (1111)
Product of capitalism
Art no longer exists for the purpose of the connection on an individual level, its purpose is to connect with as wide an audience as possible
Andy Warhol
The original Toy Story grossed $361,958,736
“People know what they want because they know what
other people want” (Adorno)“It is alleged that because millions participate in it, certain reproduction processes are necessary that inevitably require identical needs in innumerable places to be satisfied with identical goods” (1111)
“Needs” implies a strong, pre-determined response
The culture industry plays on insider/ outsider dynamic
De-individualization
...But can it deliver?
“The culture industry does not sublimate; it represses. By repeatedly exposing the objects of desire, breasts in a clinging sweater or the naked torso of the athletic hero, it only sublimates the unsublimated forepleasure which habitual deprivation has long since reduced to masochistic semblance” (1117-8).
The culture industry hooks and maintains control over the consumer by stimulating desire
It is a desire that does not exist within reality, so it can never truly satiate the needs of the consumer
Gesamptkunstwerk“The sound film, far surpassing the theater of illusion, leaves no room for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience, who is unable to respond within the structure of the film, yet deviate from its precise detail without losing the thread of the story; hence the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality” (1113)
Blend of visual and audio medium leaves no space for imagination by the viewer
The culture industry tells us how we should feel about a product by blending seamlessly with reality
Product placement
Recoding of reality; turning life into a big shopping mall
The Illusion of Individuality
“The ruthless unity in the culture industry is evidence of what will happen in politics. Marked differentiations such as those of A and B films, or of stories in magazines in different price ranges, depend no so much on subject matter as on classifying, organizing, and labeling consumers” (1112)
We desire to see our reflection in the goods we purchase, but these are arbitrarily predetermined distinctions made by the culture industry itself
Toy Story 2
Scene at 41:00
Buzz encounters hundreds of reproductions of himself at Al’s Toy Barn
Futility of the Utility Belt
Buzz considers himself to be above the influence of the culture industry, he knows he is a toy, but is drawn in by the utility belt; it is a product he did not know he wanted until he saw it on the others just like him
Buzz cannot tell the difference between representation perpetuated by the culture industry and the real
The utility belt does nothing, it is a mere marker of differences by the culture to bring in higher profit
De-Individualization
The “other” Buzz uses the same rhetoric as the “real” Buzz from the first film
Both voiced by Tim Allen
Anything can be replaced because it is mass produced resulting in a loss of sentimentality
We don’t expect meaning to be in anything
BarbieVarieties of Barbie; distinction only in clothes/ hair color
Demonstrates the manipulation of the consumer
Merchandizing
“Back in 1995 short sighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand”
Commerce based on the film is incredibly popular in toys, games, costumes, etc.
The blending of film and real life as indistinguishable is seen here