Benjamin located commodity fetishism in collective consciousness, contradicting Marxism

Evidence

Benjamin designates the world’s fairs of the nineteenth century as the physical manifestation of such images of the collective consciousness, characterising them as ‘places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetish’. At the same time, in direct contradiction to Marxism, he locates the fetish-character of the commodity in the consciousness of the dreaming collective. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 241

Categorization

• XREF: This is the crux of the Adorno-Benjamin disagreement over the fetish-character: whether fetishism is objective (Marx) or located in the dreaming collective’s consciousness (Benjamin). Connects to the book’s core thesis about Adorno’s materialist grounds. — connects to: Benjamin avoided Marxism postwar partly due to its expressionist aesthetic — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 1473; Adorno demanded Benjamin ground his commodity-soul thesis in Marx’s Capital chapter on fetishism. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 290; Adorno demanded inverting Benjamin’s imagery so reality, not fantasy, undergoes fetishistic inversion — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 249 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Commodity fetishism presents social labour relations as properties of things #qualifies (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 410
• The image of uninhibited vitality itself recycles commodity fetishism #expands (0.75)
• The early Adorno’s project of fetishizing pre-capitalist society contradicts Marxian theory #complicates (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 411