Horkheimer & Adorno “The Culture Industry”Colin Rolfe & Tamatha Williams

“To Write Poetry After Auschwitz

is Barbaric” (Adorno)

“TO WRITE POETRY AFTER AUSCHWITZ IS BARBARIC”

(ADORNO)

Max Horkheimer Theodor Adorno

Both born in Germany around the turn of the century

Both were Marxist scholars & philosophers

Max Horkheimer Theodor Adorno

Horkheimer fled Nazi Germany to Los Angeles

Adorno was denied a teaching position at a university because he was Jewish.

Dialectic of the Enlightenment written 1944, published 1947

The Culture Industry

“Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubts about the social utility of the finished products is removed” (1111)

Product of capitalism

Art no longer exists for the purpose of the connection on an individual level, its purpose is to connect with as wide an audience as possible

Andy Warhol

The original Toy Story grossed $361,958,736

“People know what they want because they know what

other people want” (Adorno)“It is alleged that because millions participate in it, certain reproduction processes are necessary that inevitably require identical needs in innumerable places to be satisfied with identical goods” (1111)

“Needs” implies a strong, pre-determined response

The culture industry plays on insider/ outsider dynamic

De-individualization

...But can it deliver?

“The culture industry does not sublimate; it represses. By repeatedly exposing the objects of desire, breasts in a clinging sweater or the naked torso of the athletic hero, it only sublimates the unsublimated forepleasure which habitual deprivation has long since reduced to masochistic semblance” (1117-8).

The culture industry hooks and maintains control over the consumer by stimulating desire

It is a desire that does not exist within reality, so it can never truly satiate the needs of the consumer

Gesamptkunstwerk“The sound film, far surpassing the theater of illusion, leaves no room for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience, who is unable to respond within the structure of the film, yet deviate from its precise detail without losing the thread of the story; hence the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality” (1113)

Blend of visual and audio medium leaves no space for imagination by the viewer

The culture industry tells us how we should feel about a product by blending seamlessly with reality

Product placement

Recoding of reality; turning life into a big shopping mall

The Illusion of Individuality

“The ruthless unity in the culture industry is evidence of what will happen in politics. Marked differentiations such as those of A and B films, or of stories in magazines in different price ranges, depend no so much on subject matter as on classifying, organizing, and labeling consumers” (1112)

We desire to see our reflection in the goods we purchase, but these are arbitrarily predetermined distinctions made by the culture industry itself

Toy Story 2

Scene at 41:00

Buzz encounters hundreds of reproductions of himself at Al’s Toy Barn

Futility of the Utility Belt

Buzz considers himself to be above the influence of the culture industry, he knows he is a toy, but is drawn in by the utility belt; it is a product he did not know he wanted until he saw it on the others just like him

Buzz cannot tell the difference between representation perpetuated by the culture industry and the real

The utility belt does nothing, it is a mere marker of differences by the culture to bring in higher profit

De-Individualization

The “other” Buzz uses the same rhetoric as the “real” Buzz from the first film

Both voiced by Tim Allen

Anything can be replaced because it is mass produced resulting in a loss of sentimentality

We don’t expect meaning to be in anything

BarbieVarieties of Barbie; distinction only in clothes/ hair color

Demonstrates the manipulation of the consumer

Merchandizing

“Back in 1995 short sighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand”

Commerce based on the film is incredibly popular in toys, games, costumes, etc.

The blending of film and real life as indistinguishable is seen here