The focus of this essay is to examine and reconstruct one of Theodor Adorno's most enigmatic philosophical concepts – the notion of mimesis. Mimesis is a fundamental pole in language, relating to imitation and mimicry. It plays an important role in all of Adorno's writings, although it is rarely if ever defined rigorously as a concept. In this essay I will develop an analysis of the mimetic that traces Adornos use of the concept in two of his major works: The Dialectic of Enlightenment and Aesthetic Theory. Adorno relates the question of mimesis to the dichotomy of nature and culture, it manifests as a mediating link between the two. Mimesis is a central trait in all culture in the sense that it is the means by which humans explain their position in the world they inhabit. By mimicking the world around them, the dangers of this world becomes intelligible and, ultimately, exploitable in human affairs. In this sense the spheres of nature and culture are revealed as an interconnected whole within the mimetic logic of identification. This reading of mimesis marks in a broader sense the ontological status that Adorno ascribes to aesthetics: the mimetic is at the same time an element of linguistic ontology and a thoroughly aesthetical notion. This essay will explore this reading of mimesis and develop the notion within the framework of the nature/culture dichotomy, focusing on Adorno's theory of prehistoric mimesis in ancient society and modern mimesis in radical art. The mimetic pole is central to the workings of the new and the unknown in the aesthetic sphere and it is a crucial element in Adorno's theory of modern aesthetics. A study of Adorno's notion of mimesis has a potential to illustrate the significance he attributes to aesthetics overall. Through the mimetic element inherent in art, aesthetics becomes more than just a field of experience, it marks a central element in all human conduct.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-31663 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Bergh, Karl |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Filosofi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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