Works should embody social problems internally rather than stare at society in horror

Evidence

This attitude was the sociological equivalent of what Adorno, referring to music, described in his contribution to the first issue of the journal as follows: `It is of no avail to it to gape at society with helpless horror. It serves its purpose for society far more accurately by offering, within the boundaries of its own material and its own formal laws, a presentation of social problems which it already contains within itself, right down to the innermost cells of its technique.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 152

Categorization

• DEFINE: States the Frankfurt position that the social content of a work lies in its technique itself, not in explicit commentary.
• XREF: Directly prefigures Adorno’s later doctrine of the ‘late style’ and the esoteric technical index from the Frankfurt School history. — connects to: Immanent critique must combine internal analysis with an external social perspective — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 52; Formal technical problems in drama mirror social problems of isolation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2237; Technical problems in art can be analyzed as encoded reactions to social problems.

Broader Connections

• Technical problems in art can be analyzed as encoded reactions to social problems. #corroborates (0.95)
• Formal technical problems in drama mirror social problems of isolation #exemplifies (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2237
• Immanent critique must combine internal analysis with an external social perspective #complicates (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 52