Political art achieves concreteness through immediate suffering rather than abstract production
Evidence
In the attempt to denounce class society in a non-psychological manner, the best Russian films, above all Battleship Potemkin, have not actually depicted the process of material production at all but the realities of war and of political-military oppression. They maintain aesthetic concreteness by showing what is immediately inflicted upon human beings rather than by depicting what takes place in the abstract order of property relations. But in so far as these films present men as objects of domination who become subjects in the struggle against such domination, they penetrate to what is essential. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 290
Categorization
Category: Connection Points
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s goal of running Adorno’s analysis on post-death culture — this is a template for how to assess political films (e.g., modern protest cinema) against Adorno’s criteria. Also relates to Eisenstein’s montage of attractions vs. the culture industry’s ‘attractions.’
- DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s criterion for non-psychological denunciation of class society: show direct infliction on bodies, not abstract property relations.