What is it about?
Adorno's theory of a negative dialectics has had a seminal influence on late modern culture and art. Although the Irish dramatic artist Brian Friel was not directly influenced by Adorno, there are striking parallels in the thinking of both dialecticians. The similarity of their conceptions of utopia is particularly obvious in Friel's late work PERFORMANCES.
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Why is it important?
Both Friel and Adorno counter the still growing materialism and positivistic thinking of our time. To establish a dignified human life, the physical must be viewed in its infinite range of unknowable possibilities. Concrete life is not absolute, but as balanced constellations of things it mimetically imitates the idea of absolute wholeness. The enlightening experience of fulfillment is made possible through the work of art, which in itself ipresents a model of wholeness.
Perspectives
Adorno's cultural criticism and theory of ungraspable truth within the graspable world could form a philosophical backdrop of Friel's artistic presentation of 'necessary uncertainty' and his conception of 'faith'. The works of both authors are critical and enlightening and may have a thetrapeutical effect on individual comportment.
Christa Veltenmrowka
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Brian Friel and Theodor W. Adorno: Utopia, Dialectics and Performances, Irish University Review, November 2018, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/iur.2018.0356.
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