Benjamin's conception of language and Adorno's aesthetic theory


Autoria(s): Duarte,Rodrigo
Data(s)

01/12/2005

Resumo

According to the theory of language of the young Benjamin, the primary task of language isn't the communication of contents, but to express itself as a "spiritual essence" in which also men take part. That conception according to which language would be a medium to signification of something outside it leads to a necessary decrease of its original strength and is thus denominated by Benjamin bürgerlich. The names of human language are remainders of an archaic state, in which things weren't yet mute and had their own language. Benjamin suggests also that all the arts remind the original language of things, as they make objects "speak" in form of sounds, colors, shapes etc. That relationship between arts as reminders of the "language of things" and the possible reconciliation of mankind with itself and with nature has been developed by Theodor Adorno in several of his writings, specially in the Aesthetic Theory, where the artwork is ultimately conceived as a construct pervaded by "language" in the widest meaning - not in the "bourgeois" sense.

Formato

text/html

Identificador

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-512X2005000200015

Idioma(s)

en

Publicador

Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFMG

Fonte

Kriterion: Revista de Filosofia v.46 n.112 2005

Palavras-Chave #Critical Theory of Society #Frankfurt School #Language of Things
Tipo

journal article