The critic’s critique of commodified art must begin as self-critique.

Evidence

It should be clear, therefore, that a critique of the new modernism cannot be an external but only an internal affair, that it is part and parcel of an increasing self-consciousness (in the heightened, dialectical sense we have given to that term), and that it involves a judgment on ourselves fully as much as a judgment on the works of art to which we react. The ambiguity, in other words, is as much in the revolutionary’s own position as it is in the art object: insofar as he is himself a product of the society he condemns, his revolutionary attitude is bound to presuppose a negation of himself, an initial subjective dissociation that has to precede the objective, political one. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 788

Categorization

• XREF: This is the Frankfurt-School dialectic of the critique as immanent to its object—Adorno’s immanent critique and the refusal of a merely external standpoint. Also connects to Sartre’s concept of the intellectual as self-negating product of his own class. — connects to: Modernist criticism must first submit to modernism’s fascination to have binding force — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 786; Self-criticism becomes performative ritual rather than operative change — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 951; Adequate modernist criticism must read the economy both in and from the artwork — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 663 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernist criticism must first submit to modernism’s fascination to have binding force #expands (0.88) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 786
• Adequate modernist criticism must read the economy both in and from the artwork #expands (0.78) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 663
• Self-criticism becomes performative ritual rather than operative change #complicates (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 951
• Critical multiculturalism requires self-critique of one’s own culture first #corroborates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 952