Adorno defined myth as base reality, not obsolete explanation
Evidence
In a late note written during his work on AestheticTheory, Adorno substantiateshisdefinitionof myth,arguingthatmythisnotalongobsoleteexplanation of the world, ‘not what is not the case’, but rather base reality – ‘what is always constant in the world,its baked-togetherness(dasImmergleiche,Zusammengebackene, derWelt)’. Myth is ‘the stuff of world: how it is, how it will remain, how it should be’. Hence, in the exchangeof equivalents– the exchangewhich permits neither more nor less than equivalency – Adorno recognises this myth of the always constant: ‘as long as domination persists through exchange, myth will dominate as well’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 773
Categorization
- DEFINE: Pinpoints Adorno’s late definition of myth as ‘das Immergleiche, Zusammengebackene der Welt’ — the always-constant baked-togetherness of the world — a precise technical specification of a contested term.
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does this late definition relate to the earlier Dialektik der Aufklärung account? Does it revise or sharpen the earlier myth/Enlightenment thesis?
- XREF: connects to: Myth lends force to mafia reality rather than reality being plain; Adorno and Benjamin jointly pursued a dialectical dissolution of myth through inverse theology — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 868; Adorno denied that sacrifice offers any genuine transcendence for victim or myth — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1383