Frankfurt School Essays

As a member of the Frankfurt School, Theodor Adorno both remembered and became nostalgic for a life before mass commercialization. As a witness to the role of propaganda and mass production in Germany during both World Wars and the invention of the printing press, piano roll, phonograph, radio, and Tin Pan Alley, Adorno passionately challenged the place of mass communication within society. As worried as Adorno was about mass culture undermining individualism in the twentieth century, he would be

This in turn helps stabilize the capitalist society. The Frankfurt School were one of the first people to analyze the culture industries and discovered that it helps stabilize capitalism. By controlling giant corporations, the culture industries, helps to create products that promote “products that generate a highly

The Smart film and High concept film are common terms used in Hollywood. According to Jeffery Sconce, not only can smart cinema be thought of as a ‘wing’ or an ‘arm’ of indie cinema and has many of the features of the indie aesthetic, but smart cinema also has it’s own specific stylistic, narrative and tonal features. In addition, the smart film explicitly positions itself in opposition to mainstream Hollywood cinema while also remaining a part of it. On the other hand, high concept film is a term

Compare the different approaches that Timberg in Culture Crash and Hewison’s Cultural Capital take to a single aspect of the contemporary culture industry. In this essay I will discuss the different approaches that Timberg and Hewison used in their respective books Culture Crash and Cultural Capital. Scott Timberg discusses the ever growing threat to the creative class. Which he defines as “anyone who helps create or disseminate culture,” this includes musicians, librarians, artists,architects

CJ Armstrong CRJS 2090 Case Study 1 2/18/23 1. How does Messner and Rosenfeld’s theory of institutional anomie help us understand the choices made by Howard Ratner in the film? What type of strain reviewed in the class can be best applied? Completely define all components of the theory(s), then apply the theory to the film. The theory of institutional anomie essentially assumes that an individual places material goods above most other things in life because in the United States material wealth is

Resulting from a series of political revolutions such as the 1789 French Revolution and the 1760 Industrial Revolution, and a series of historical developments such as the subsequent rise of capitalism, Enlightenment thinkers sought to combine reason with empirical research in an effort to produce bodies of rational thought. These bodies of rational thought arose from the thinkers’ belief in using reason and research to comprehend and control society; focusing on the relationship between the individual

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s essay, The Culture Industry (1944), juxtaposes the words culture and industry to describe a state where cultural forms, such as television, music, and film are no longer creative outlets but industries dominated by commodification and profit. The production of meaning, creation of stories, symbols, and experiences that we use to make sense of the world is an industry or a full profit venture. David Hesmondhalgh’s ideas, in The Culture Industries (2013), differ

Enlightenment is a very interesting concept when one thinks about what it entails. Enlightenment, as it is discussed in The Critique of Enlightenment, is a state of awareness due to the constant gain of knowledge and understanding. Horkheimer and Adorno bring some very interesting points to light on the topic of enlightenment that should be well considered when dealing with social issues. Why is it that man has such an intense attraction for knowledge apart from compassion? Is knowledge alone enough

Progress, if incorrectly defined by the population, “sabotages insight and helps to perpetuate the zealously forbidding reflection upon what, in the age of both utopian and absolutely destructive possibilities, the consciousness of those entangled would like to discover: whether there is progress” (Adorno, 143). According to the philosophical writers, Adorno, Lefebvre, and Nina Power, in a capitalist society, false wants and needs along with the hegemonic system set up by capitalism, stunt genuine

Karen Quiroz Munoz Professor Buechele Midterm: Question 2 In this paper I will discuss the "Culture Industry" by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer and why they argued that audience identification with the products of the culture industry was manipulation. Also I will discuss Adorno and Horkheimer 's views of the possibility to have "authentic" forms of art produced through the culture industry. And lastly, how they define true works of art. Adorno and Horkheimer take an interesting stance when

In the past decades, politicians had believed authoritarian regime would only hinder economic development. However, there are successful cases demonstrated by authoritarian countries that it may not be the case. It raised a heated debate on whether authoritarian regime will help or hinder economic development. Before addressing the question, definition of keyword are needed to be clarified. Authoritarianism refers to “Political systems with limited, not responsible, political pluralism, without elaborate

Harry Frankfurt, of Princeton University, takes on the task of defining an ambiguous word used often in today’s modern culture: bullshit. Frankfurt’s essay, “On Bullshit,” was first written in 1986 then later was published in the book On Bullshit in 2005. The purpose of this writing piece is to uncover the true meaning of bullshit. Frankfurt attempts to achieve an accurate definition of the word by exploring how it relates to the writings of others, including Max Black, Longfellow, and St. Augustine

Zinn’s speech shows a clear indication that he is confident in his own field and opinion. An example is when he openly criticizes Hollywood’s poor structure; “It’s a structure where money and profit are absolutely the first consideration: before art, before aesthetics, before human values” (2). He is brutally honest about his opinion on Hollywood’s capitalistic outlook. He claims that they do not focus on the true priorities that a movie should have and instead are only focused on making money rather

In this essay I will discuss how visual media is more important than audio media. I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of visual media, visual media in relation to communication, social media and music. I will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of audio media, and audio in relation to communication, social media and music. Visual Media is huge in modern day society. The Modern world has become more visualized in every aspect due to the high influence in media. 90% of information

Isabel Allende’s, My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile, is her memoir about her native country, yet also sheds light to other important societal roles in Chile. As she passionately writes about her experiences, Allende makes it evidently clear that she loves her homeland, regardless of what troubles the country encounters. Nonetheless, it should be noted that her memoir is solely based upon her memories, and incorporates a sense of fiction to better help tell her story through vivid

“Culture now impresses the same stamp on everything. Films, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part…Under monopoly all mass culture is identical (4). Writing in the 1940s, German intellects, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, coined the term “cultural industry” to describe how in a world dominated by capitalism and consumption, culture has become a standardized commodity for the singular goal of profit. Since their writing in the 1940s, major technological

In Adorno’s viewpoint, pop music makes the song seem different from all others, but in reality, they are all standardized. Adorno contends that pop songs are pseudo-individualized, which means the elements of a song make it seem different from others to make people believe they have a vast range of choices, but in reality, the choices are illusion (“On Popular Music” 25). Pseudo means fake, so pseudo-individualization means fake individualization. Some elements/features such as a singer’s voice and

Throughout the course, I have noticed bits and pieces of Theodore Adorno and Walter Benjamin’s ideas of art popping up through modern day art and other things in daily life. In particular, I would like to look at our modern-day reality game shows to relate their theories to. Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” discusses how film changes the way people interact. “The artistic performance of the screen actor… is presented to the audience via a piece of equipment

Arts has always been a hot topic and also an essential part of people’s daily life, In ‘When Canada Met Andy’ and ‘The Soul of Capitalism’, Nancy Tousley and Robert Collins tell a story of an artist and a patron respectively. The artist, Warhol, and the patron, Hap, share different opinion towards modern arts. Andy Warhol is a huge supporter of modern arts while Hap believes that those arts don't worth the value that people pay for it. In Tousley’s article, Andy Warhol is an artist who insists

In the play Trifles, Susan Glaspell demonstrates the injustice towards women and their very basic fundamental rights, this brings the patience of a few women to a tipping point and initiates the birth of a buried movement after centuries of reticence, during the early twentieth century in North America. It is this common memory and experiences among women, which motivated few women to rise up against the male dominated Justice System, which eventually wakes up the rest of the women in the society