Culture Industry Reconsidered

Culture Industry Reconsidered

Culture Industry Reconsidered was written by Theodor W. Adorno, a German philosopher. He was born on September 11, 1903. He belonged to the Frankfurt School of social theory. The Frankfurt School takes its name from the Institute for Social Research established in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923. Adorno along with Max Horkheimer published a book named ‘Dialectic of Enlightenment’ in 1947. In this book they use the term ‘cultural industry’ for the first time.

In the essay Cultural Industry Reconsidered, Adorno replaces the expression ‘mass culture’ with ‘culture industry'. This is to avoid the popular understanding of mass culture as the culture that arises from the masses.He prefers to call it ‘culture industry’ because of the commodification of the culture forms or artistic objects. He opines that cultural forms create a means of income for their creators, so profit has become more important than the artistic expression. Hence, culture has turned into an industry and the cultural objects are looked at as products. One of the characteristics of cultural industry is that it intentionally integrates both the high and low art.

By referring to the term 'industry', Adorno does not point to the production process. Instead he is looking at the ‘standardization of the thing itself’ and to the rationalization of distribution techniques, and not strictly to the production process. It is industrial more in a sociological sense, in terms of incorporation of the industrial forms of organization, even though nothing is manufactured.

He also makes clear the difference between the technique used in cultural industry and the technique used in works of art. In the works of art the technique refers to the formal organization of the object, with its inner logic, whereas in cultural industry it refers to the distribution and the mechanical production. Thus technique in cultural industry is external to the object, whereas in the works of art it is internal.

Adorno says that the masses are secondary and are ‘an appendage of the machinery’ in the cultural industry. He argues that, the culture industry claims to bring order in the chaotic world. It provides human beings with something like a standard and an orientation, yet the thing that it is claiming to preserve is actually being destroyed. The essay also makes a reference to Walter Benjamin’s theory of the ‘aura’. It says that the Culture Industry doesn’t have an alternative to the aura. Hence, it is going against its own ideologies. Adorno's concept of culture industry indicates the necessity for rethinking his theory of mass culture.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Popular culture — (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes,[1] images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of… …   Wikipedia

  • Business and Industry Review — ▪ 1999 Introduction Overview        Annual Average Rates of Growth of Manufacturing Output, 1980 97, Table Pattern of Output, 1994 97, Table Index Numbers of Production, Employment, and Productivity in Manufacturing Industries, Table (For Annual… …   Universalium

  • Cultural Marxism — is a term referring to a group of Marxists who have sought to apply critical theory to matters of family composition, gender, race, and cultural identity within Western society. Contents 1 Explanation of the Cultural Marxism theory 1.1 Frankfurt… …   Wikipedia

  • 1990s in sociology — The following events related to sociology occurred in the 1990s.1990*Zygmunt Bauman s Thinking Sociologically is published. *James Coleman s Foundations of Social Theory is published. *Troy Duster s Backdoor To Eugenics is published. *Mike… …   Wikipedia

  • 1991 en sociologie — Années : 1988 1989 1990  1991  1992 1993 1994 Décennies : 1960 1970 1980  1990  2000 2010 2020 Siècles : XIXe siècle  XXe siècl …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Seattle — This article is about the city. For other uses, see Seattle (disambiguation). Seattle   City   City of Seattle …   Wikipedia

  • Italy — /it l ee/, n. a republic in S Europe, comprising a peninsula S of the Alps, and Sicily, Sardinia, Elba, and other smaller islands: a kingdom 1870 1946. 57,534,088; 116,294 sq. mi. (301,200 sq. km). Cap.: Rome. Italian, Italia. * * * Italy… …   Universalium

  • ARCHAEOLOGY — The term archaeology is derived from the Greek words archaios ( ancient ) and logos ( knowledge, discourse ) and was already used in ancient Greek literature in reference to the study of ancient times. In its modern sense it has come to mean the… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • United States — a republic in the N Western Hemisphere comprising 48 conterminous states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska in North America, and Hawaii in the N Pacific. 267,954,767; conterminous United States, 3,022,387 sq. mi. (7,827,982 sq. km); with… …   Universalium

  • India — /in dee euh/, n. 1. Hindi, Bharat. a republic in S Asia: a union comprising 25 states and 7 union territories; formerly a British colony; gained independence Aug. 15, 1947; became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations Jan. 26, 1950.… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”