Modernist art redeems reification’s fragments as Utopian compensation

Evidence

Yet modernism can at one and the same time be read as a Utopian compensation for everything reification brings with it. We stressed the semi-autonomy of the fragmented senses, the new autonomy and intrinsic logic of their henceforth abstract objects such as color or pure sound; but it is precisely this new semi-autonomy and the presence of these waste products of capitalist rationalization that open up a life space in which the opposite and the negation of such rationalization can be, at least imaginatively, experienced. — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 5942

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the dialectical move in ‘One Square Inch of Silence’ framing silence as a positive presence — both treat a negation as a productive site. Also resonates with the semi-autonomous sense-fragments idea from the soundscape material. — connects to: Art is trapped between utopian longing and the charge of false comfort — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 66; Modernist inwardness paired with a utopian sense of self and world transformation — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 681; Modernism’s utopian function was securing authentic experience against mass culture — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 193 (+7 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The two-sided thesis — modernism as both ideological expression AND Utopian compensation for the same reification — is a dense dialectical inversion central to Jameson’s method and worth sitting with.

Broader Connections

• Art is trapped between utopian longing and the charge of false comfort #expands (0.90) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 66
• Modernist inwardness paired with a utopian sense of self and world transformation #expands (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 681
• Capital reabsorbed modernism’s cult of the new as commodity novelty #responds-to (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 62
• Modernism’s utopian function was securing authentic experience against mass culture #qualifies (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 193
• Mass cultural manipulation depends on genuine Utopian longings #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 6911
• Capitalist commodification displaces the aesthetic value of art #complicates (0.72) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 69