Hölderlin’s parataxis suspends the logic of synthesis more gently than music does

Evidence

For Adorno’s philosophy of literature, the later Hölderlin turned out to be what Schoenberg was to music. In contrast to music, non-conceptual synthesis in literature rebounds against the medium: it becomes a constitutive dissociation. The traditional logic of synthesis is therefore only gently suspended by Hölderlin. Benjamin managed to describe this using the concept of series … Although, as Staiger rightly emphasized, Hölderlin’s method, steeled by contact with Greek, is not devoid of boldly formed hypotactic constructions, parataxes are noticeable as elaborate disturbances that deviate from the logical hierarchy of subordinating syntax. Hölderlin is irresistibly drawn to forms of this sort. The transformation of language into a concatenation, the elements of which combine in a manner different from that of judgement, is a musical one. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 556

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s concept of ‘non-conceptual synthesis’ as it operates differently across media — music versus literature.
• XREF: Connects to the Adorno/Benjamin material in chapter 525 and to Benjamin material across other Frankfurt School chapters. — connects to: Formal incompleteness in music can convey longing more deeply than resolved expression — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 460; Some music conveys feeling through unresolved ambiguity rather than certainty — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1303; Musical experience resists reduction to mere physical vibrations — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 144 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Formal incompleteness in music can convey longing more deeply than resolved expression — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 460; Some music conveys feeling through unresolved ambiguity rather than certainty — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1303; Musical experience resists reduction to mere physical vibrations — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 144 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Artistic creativity is curation and synthesis, not inner depth #complicates (0.74) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1311