AISTHESIS: Revista Chilena de Investigaciones Estéticas

Presentation dossier "Perspectives on Critical Theory: 100 Years after the Founding of the Institute for Social Research"

Jordi Maiso — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Presentation dossier "Perspectives on Critical Theory: 100 Years after the Founding of the Institute for Social Research"

‘Dialectics’ in the Dialectics of Enlightenment

José Antonio Zamora Zaragoza — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Dialectic of Enlightenment is at the epicenter of all debates surrounding critical theory. For most of its interpreters, it is the expression of a state of mind provoked by fascism, the Second World War and genocide. A manifestation of a negative philosophy of history, which only made sense as a provocation, but no longer serves to interpret the past or the present. Is it possible to return to this work with benefit? This article analyses the concept of dialectics, which we find in the title. How it came about and what its actual meaning is. In doing so, it makes a contribution that helps to clear up some of the misunderstandings that still exist with regard to this key work of the twentieth century.

Reticent Critique

Esteban Alejandro Juárez — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Based on the diagnosis of the post-critical regime, a shift is proposed in the formulation of the problem of the supposed crisis of critique. This shift does not advocate a radical abandonment of critique, nor does it defend its provisional function in view of its practical consummation in a true society, nor the order of normative regulation that makes it possible to determine, evaluate and hierarchize its own performance. What we are interested in exploring is that which is subtracted from the normative regulation of the judgment on the adequate and the inadequate. The subject of reflection is what critique designates in its irreducible difference with itself. The present paper then investigates this difference under the name of «reticent critique». In doing so, it makes use of Adorno’s notion of «the added». The general thesis maintains that reticent critique comprises an «aesthetic moment» that prevents it from constituting itself, as Kant wanted, into an absolute tribunal to which everything must submit.

Listening to the Unheard: Philosophy and Music in the Early Critical Theory

Marina Hervás Muñoz — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of music as an object of philosophical inquiry within the context of the emergence of the critical theory. To this end, a concise examination of the role of music in public and political debates of the early 20th century is presented, with particular attention to the period’s journals and discussions. Subsequently, the most significant aspects of the relationship between philosophy and music are analyzed through the works of three thinkers who, around the same time, began to develop a philosophical project centered on music: Theodor W. Adorno, Ernst Bloch, and Günther Anders (whose work on music, published only recently, has yet to receive sufficient academic attention). Specifically, the tension between language and music is explored, focusing on issues of expression and construction, as well as the characterization of the musical experience. Finally, the utopian nature of music is critically examined.

At the heart of the impossible. Walter Benjamin, Marcel Proust and La Recherche

Bruna Della Torre — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: This article explores the centrality of Marcel Proust’s novel À la Recherche du temps perdu in the literary criticism of Walter Benjamin. In the context of the 100th anniversary of the Institute for Social Research, it reevaluates how he engaged with Proust's work and highlights the importance of art and literature for a radical Critical Theory. For Benjamin, Proust is a subversive writer who surpasses the novel as a genre and subverts the relationship between the novel and time through recollection. La Recherche is also a powerful force for Benjamin’s critical theory. Therefore, the article also addresses the presence of Proustian themes in his reflections on history and revolution.

Allegory and Porosity in Walter Benjamin. From Trauerspiel to the Essay on Naples

Chaxiraxi Escuela Cruz — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On August 19, 1925, Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis published Naples in Frankfurter Zeitung. It is an essay about the Italian city, where they analyze the customs and cultural practices of the area through a peculiar method of image superimposition. It is common to interpret One-Way Street as the work in which Benjamin first approaches physiognomy as a form of expression. This paper aims to address the first of the city physiognomies that Benjamin wrote in the 1920s. The objective is to show how Benjamin sets in motion, in these city portraits, a theory of representation based on the study of allegory in The Origin of German Tragic Drama. The essay on Naples will be presented as the first of the exercises undertaken by Benjamin to apply his research on Baroque drama to problems of contemporary culture.

The Concept of Society and the Exchange of Commodities in Adorno

Alberto Bonnet — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article briefly presents the way in which Adorno bases his concept of society on a socialization mediated by the exchange of commodities (in the first section) and proposes (in the second section) three aspects of his argument that deserve discussion and/or development. These three aspects are: (1) the scant development of his key notion of “principle of exchange”; (2) the influence of the conception of “state capitalism” on his thought, which is incompatible with his conception of a society socialized through exchange; and (3) the absence of a development of the legal form of this exchange, complementary to its economic form. The main source of the article is his sociological, philosophical-sociological or philosophical writings, lectures and seminars written and given in the 1950s and 1960s. Adorno's concept of society is, in our opinion, the most elaborate one that critical theory of society has to guide its research on capitalist society. Therefore, the intention of this article is to contribute to a critical appropriation of this concept by identifying those problems and indicating possible paths to their solution.

Negative Dialectics: The Transformation of the Critical Theory of Society

Alfonso Galileo García Vela — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In Negative Dialectics, Adorno historically justifies the necessity for critical social theory to adopt the form of philosophy. This transformation represents a profound shift from the Marxist tradition and has significant implications for the development of critical theory today. This article seeks to clarify the sociohistorical arguments that led Adorno to redirect critical thought toward philosophy, supported by an immanent critique of Marx's theory and Hegel's philosophy of identity. The article will also examine the importance of immanent critique for the Frankfurt School, focusing on aspects that are considered essential for understanding its development and significance. This analysis will lay the groundwork for addressing Adorno's thesis on the historical necessity of philosophy in the formulation of a negative dialectic. Finally, it will discuss the dilemma that arises when confronting Adorno's critical theory with that of Moishe Postone, namely, whether critical theory should be conceived as a social theory or as a negative dialectical philosophy. The aim is to provide an answer to this question.

On the Concept of Non-Identity in Adorno’s Negative Dialectics

Amaro Fleck — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The concept of non-identity is not only one of the most important concepts in Theodor W. Adorno's work, Negative Dialectics, but also one of the most enigmatic. To a large extent, this enigmatic character stems from an ambiguous or oscillating use of the term in the work. The Frankfurt thinker uses the concept both to refer to the non-identity between the concept and the conceptualized object as social critique – indicating that concepts are socially necessary appearances of an illegitimate situation – and to indicate the non-identity between the concept and the conceptualized object as a critique of knowledge, demonstrating that the object exceeds what its concept can encompass while the concept also exceeds its object. In this article, I defend the thesis that this oscillating use of the term arises from a problematic interpretation of Marx's theory of surplus value, which allows Adorno to link the critique of ideology (non-identity between the concept and the conceptualized object as social critique) with the critique of fetishism (non-identity between the concept and the conceptualized object as critique of knowledge). This interpretation is crucial to justify the thesis of the proto-kinship between the exchange principle and the identity principle, bringing consequences for Adorno's project of uniting social critique with the critique of knowledge.

Utopia on the Edge of Reality

Silvio Carneiro — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article seeks to analyze the concept of utopia as central to Herbert Marcuse´s critical theory. At first, we will deal with the debate that the author develops with Max Horkheimer's position. In the fundamental essay “Traditional Theory and Critical Theory”, Horkheimer stresses the importance of utopia for the construction of an image of the future, but he is suspicious of utopian powers and their idealistic links. In “Philosophy and Critical Theory” (1937), Marcuse responds to this position: critical theory should not fear utopia. Instead of leaving it to an uncertain future, Marcuse points out that utopian promises are already offered in the present and critical thinking must also take note of this. Some years later (1967), Marcuse recognizes the change in the utopian perspective based on the society of work. With technology, social relations are transformed. But this does not mean that utopian energies are exhausted, as Jürgen Habermas affirms. On the other hand, there are many social struggles that arise in this period. According to Marcuse, utopian energies are renewed, recovering a new sense of freedom and need that comes from these struggles.

Considerations on the Family in Th. W. Adorno and M. Horkheimer

Cristina Catalina Gallego — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article examines Adorno and Horkheimer's analysis of the bourgeois family and its crisis within advanced capitalism, particularly in relation to the development of authoritarian tendencies in Western societies. The bourgeois family held a dialectical tension as a mediating institution between the individual and the social whole: while it facilitated the internalization of social domination, it also contained elements that resisted the instrumental rationality necessary for individuality. However, the social conditions of advanced capitalism disrupt this tension—based on the interplay of patriarchal authority and maternal love—further weakening the self and fostering the development of authoritarian dispositions.

How to Aesthetically Build a People: On a Certain Dark Modernism and its Relevance Today

Vladimir Safatle — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We are used to talking about fascism and its contemporary variants as “enemies of culture”, as a political force animated by disregard for the arts. However, the extreme importance given by fascism to the field of culture is evident; its cultural battles are central constituent processes of its struggles. I believe that we will miss fundamental dimensions of the fascist phenomenon if we don't understand it as a battle for the formation of social sensitivity, for the cultivation of affections and for the production of the sensitive horizon of politics. The sensible order is the foundation of the social imagination, of its limits and forms, and the control of imagination and sensibility is the foundation of any and all power. Because it is aware of this, fascism is an aesthetic project, a reconstruction of sensibility that defines the limits of the visible and the perceptible within the social order. What I propose here is to understand the dynamics of the actualization of such a fascist cultural revolution, taking into account the current stage of the material processes of cultural reproduction in capitalist societies.

Review of the book: Dispositivos neoliberales y resistencias by Rodrigo Castro Orellana

Gonzalo Ramos Pérez — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Review of the book: Dispositivos neoliberales y resistencias by Rodrigo Castro Orellana

Review of La razón de los afectos. Populismo, feminismo, psicoanálisis, by Roque Farrán

Jacinta Gorriti — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Review of La razón de los afectos. Populismo, feminismo, psicoanálisis, by Roque Farrán

Review of Medea: La barbarie de Pier Paolo Pasolini, by Oscar Ariel Cabezas

Ana Carrasco-Conde — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Review of Medea: La barbarie de Pier Paolo Pasolini, by Oscar Ariel Cabezas

Review of La fotografía y el otro. Cuerpo y estética del retorno, by Diego Lizarazo Arias

Paula Sánchez Mayor — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Review of La fotografía y el otro. Cuerpo y estética del retorno, by Diego Lizarazo Arias

Review of Teatro, escuela y masculinidades, by María Paz Gallardo Barría

Ricardo Amigo Dürre — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Review of Teatro, escuela y masculinidades, by María Paz Gallardo Barría.

Betrayal and Becoming The 20th Century: Thought at the Side of History

Jun Fujita Hirose — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The twentieth century, in its historical materiality, knew only resistances and never revolutions. Even the Russian revolution of 1917 was a resistance. Revolution was a concept. Throughout the last century, resistance as a historical fact and revolution as a concept remained on a disjunctive side-by-side, comparable to the disjunctive audio-visual relationship between image and voice in modern cinema: the poets of negritude alongside the struggles of blacks for self-determination, Jean Genet alongside the struggles of Palestinians against the Zionist state, and so on.

Nuno Ramos between Voice and Language

João Guilherme Dayrell — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article starts from the manifestation of compassion for animals manifested by the narrator of Ó (2008), by Nuno Ramos, to henceforth investigates the recurrence of the topic in the artistic and literary work of the author. With this, the division of his work will be proposed in three great zones of intensity, starting, especially, from the way in which, in it, voice and language, matter and culture are related, namely: silence, compassion and finally, the intrabody, a concept we borrowed from the philosopher Emanuele Coccia. Finally, we will choose Ó as a point of importance in his production due to the emphasis given to the three articulations.

Towards Poetics of Colombian Animation

Jesús Alejandro Guzmán Ramírez — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article reviews academic texts and productions related with the idea of constructing the concept of poetics around Colombian animation, trying to relate the artistic, cultural and technological dynamics that have led to commercial actions and national policies that seek to consolidate a sector. For this purpose, the concept of “artfacturing” is presented as a new proposal around the interactions, processes and agents within an animated production, structured from the different discussions generated on the definition of poetics, artifact and particularly what it means "to make movement". In this sense, the literature review covers the foundational aspects in the historical reconstruction of animation in Colombia, as well as the reflections and critical discussions that were found at the national level, including standout influences and productions developed in Colombia. The aim has been to locate elements that give an account of the bases that exist on animation in the particular context of Colombia and the evolution it has had up to now.

Rethink the Politicization of Art

Alexis Palomino, Matías Sánchez Ponce — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Considering the cinematic work of Paz Encina and Raúl Ruiz, this article problematizes certain readings of Benjamin’s concept of the politicization of art, focusing on cinema's potential to produce a sensory deposing. The politicization of art is reconsidered through the role of art in politics: as a device resisting the sensory narcosis imposed by post-dictatorial aestheticizing policies in the Southern Cone. Through a comparative analysis of contemporary readers of Benjamin and a reconsideration of Marx’s influence, the article emphasizes the relevance of a «politicized conception of art», linked to a way of understanding images that seeks to alter our perceptual-sensory experience, shaping our historical notion.

Childhoods, Memories and Cinemas. An Interpretative Proposal of its Links, Gears and Manifestations

Camilo Bácares Jara — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The following text attempts to answer why childhood is a material of remembrance or a permanent presence in cinema in terms of remembrance. To do so, it proposes three explanatory facts. The first consists of the turn towards memory that the Holocaust brought about and that ultimately facilitated the visibility of children as victims of political violence and totalitarianism. Secondly, memories of childhood are transferred to cinema through the effect of adaptations of novels and diaries where this process had previously taken place, or through the searches of filmmakers who, in order to talk about their childhood, resort to family letters and archive documents. Lastly, this interrelation is sustained by the extensive narrative use of phenomena, gestures, looks and stories of children that cinema has implemented since its invention.

Guernica, the Chilean Social Uprising and a Rethinking of an Aesthetic

Felipe Pablo Espinoza Villarroel, Guisela Latorre — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article is an aesthetic and symbolic reflection that takes artist Miguel Ángel Kastro’s revision of Guernica as its starting point. The analysis and its relevance within the 2019 social uprising in Chile will allow us to establish how certain works of art, considered canonical within Western art, can be re-read and recontextualized to express different urgencies and demands than those originally intended, within what some authors have called “art in flux.” Along these lines, the authors will briefly review the historical origins of Chilean street art as a history of a revisited canon and will explore how some of these expressions insert themselves within what is called a “post-historical art.” As a final heading, the article will reflect on what it means for Kastro’s work to be the frontispiece for the Museum of the Social Uprising in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago.

Aesthetics of the Insensitive: The In-World Order of Relations

Lorena Souyris Oportot — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

From a theoretical study, this article seeks to examine the aesthetic-affective dynamics that are manifested in fields of experiences which have ordained in-word practices. Such an examination assumes a reflection that aims to problematize insensitivity, not only as an antinomy of sensitivity, but also as an analytics of the insensitive that has regulated a feeling of indifference to the other, organizing a way of inhabiting the present world that would be fulfilled in the individualized particularity and in the contingency, thus revealing a readiness for the insensitive. The thesis that is support attempted is that this availability would originate from a psychic topic which would legitimize the Lacanian idea that the subject arises as an effect of a signifier difference, namely, of a constitutive crack which entails an eccentric relationship with the I and which would manifest itself in an internal segregation exteriorized in the antinomy sensitivity/insensitivity; but also, reflected in the other antinomy hospitality/inhospitality in the constitution of the experience of how we make world.