Adorno saw Benjamin’s Marxist side as an un-Benjaminian artifact of Brecht’s influence.

Evidence

Iconoclasm of this sort alarmed Adorno, since he regarded it as a parody of the transcendence of art and as an abolition of art which was trapped in the illusion that decisive changes were immediately possible and which destroyed the chances for a radicalizing transformation of art. Adorno never understood why since 1967 there had been criticism of the edition of Benjamin’s works that he had brought out during the 1950s, and why he had been accused of suppressing the materialist Benjamin, the Benjamin who defended the decisive role of art in the class struggle. The `Marxist’ Benjamin had always appeared to Adorno to be something un-Benjaminian that could only be explained by Brecht’s influence, an anti-art trait that did not suit Benjamin. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2717

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s specific conception of Benjamin — the ‘materialist Benjamin’ versus the one Adorno curated — which is essential for understanding the 1960s critical-theory debates over Benjamin’s legacy.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno’s new-music theory borrowed Benjamin’s controlled nature-mastery, not orthodox Marxism. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 367; Adorno rebuked Benjamin for paying an unflattering tribute to orthodox Marxism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 884; Adorno judged Benjamin’s Marxism an unwitting productive misreading, not orthodoxy — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 297

Broader Connections

• Adorno judged Benjamin’s Marxism an unwitting productive misreading, not orthodoxy #corroborates (0.78) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 297