Adorno repurposed Marx’s commodity fetish concept toward art reception rather than production relations.

Evidence

Not long before writing ‘On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening’, Adorno warned Benjamin that ‘the conception of the commodity fetish must be documented with appropriate passages from the man who discovered it’. However, through a productive misunderstanding, Adorno’sownessaytransformstheconceptintoonewhichdescribesthereception of artworks under conditions relating to the dominant mode of production. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 433

Categorization

• QUESTION: The chapter calls this a ‘productive misunderstanding’ — but what exactly is ‘misunderstood’ about Marx’s concept here, and how deliberately so?
• SEED: Angle: Adorno’s ‘productive misunderstanding’ of Marx’s commodity fetish — a case study in how theoretical concepts migrate between domains, from critique of political economy to aesthetics.
• XREF: connects to: For Adorno, artistic autonomy and commodity fetishism are mutually constitutive, not opposites. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 432; Adorno used fetishism to mediate Marx and Freud into synthesis — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 405; Adorno’s notion of fetishism derived from popular speech, not from Marx or Freud — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 413 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno used fetishism to mediate Marx and Freud into synthesis #expands (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 405
• Adorno’s notion of fetishism derived from popular speech, not from Marx or Freud #contradicts (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 413