Abstract
In metaphorical terms, modernity can be viewed as a New World through which under-standings of what it means to be modern can be continually re-thought in both temporal and spatial terms. The temporal horizon of modernity can shift from one usually conceptualised in terms of an originary moment emerging in the eighteenth century, which is supplanted by a post-modern condition in the late twentieth century, to a longer-term one beginning in the fifteenth century that is fractured by a series of variegated distinctions, or a plurality of temporal horizons and possibilities (pasts, presents, and futures). The spatial horizon also shifts from a modernity conceived as a social form with a single defining centre (usually Western Europe) to one that has multiple centres and multiple geographical locations. The spatial dimension, though, not only refers to multiple centres and geographies, but also to the multiple spaces in which modern subjects co-habit — spaces that they create but which also constrain them. The tension between the creation of spaces and the constraints that they impose creates a dissonance that emits its own sounds of contingency and possibility.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Literature
Adorno, Theodor, W. “Bach Defended Against His Devotees.” Prisms. Tr. Samuel and Shierry Weber. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981 (a). 133–146.
-. “Cultural Criticism and Society.” Prisms. Tr. Samuel and Shierry Weber. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981 (b). 17–34.
-. Philosophy of Modern Music. Tr. Anne G. Mitchell and Wesley V. Bloomster. London: Sheed and Ward, 1973.
-. “On the Contemporary Relationship of Philosophy and Music.” Essays on Music. Theodor W. Adorno. Ed. Richard Leppart, tr. Susan H. Gillespie. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. 135–161.
-. “Alienated Masterpiece: The ‘Missa Solemnis’ (1959).” Essays on Music. Theodor W. Adorno. Ed. Richard Leppart, tr. Susan H. Gillespie. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. 569–584.
Arnason, Johann P. “Cultural Critique and Cultural Presuppositions: the hermeneutical under-current in critical theory.” Philosophy and Cultural Criticism 2.15 (1989): 125–149.
Bernstein, J. M. Adorno. Disenchantment and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Bowie, Andrew. “Adorno, Heidegger and the Meaning of Music.” Thesis Eleven 56 (1999): 1–23.
Fehér, Ferenc. “Negative Philosophy of Music–Positive Results.” New German Critique 4 (1975): 99–111.
-. “Adorno and the Vicissitudes of Rationalized Music.” The Grandeur and Twilight of Radical Universalism. Ed. Agnes Heller and Ferenc Fehér. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1991. 331–350.
Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. The Dialectic of Enlightenment. Tr. John Cumming. New York: Continuum, 1972.
Jay, Martin. Adorno. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Luhmann, Niklas. “The Work of Art and the Self-Production of Art.” Tr. David Roberts. Thesis Eleven 12 (1985): 4–27.
-. “The Medium of Art.” Tr. David Roberts. Thesis Eleven 18/19 (1987/1988): 101–113.
-. Social Systems. Tr. John Bednarz, Jr., with Dirk Baecker, Foreword Eva M. Knodt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995.
-. Art as a Social System. Tr. Eva M. Knodt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Pensky, Max. “Natural History: The Life and Afterlife of a Concept in Adorno.” Contemporary Perspectives in Critical and Social Theory. Ed. John Rundell, Danielle Petherbridge, Jan Bryant, John Hewitt and Jeremy Smith. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004. 227–258.
Roberts, David. Art and Enlightenment Aesthetic Theory after Adorno. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.
-. “Paradox Preserved: From Ontology to Autology: Reflections on Luhmann’s ‘The Art of Society’.” Thesis Eleven 51 (1997): 52–72.
-. “Self-Reference in Literature.” Problems in Literature. Ed. Dirk Baecker. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Seel, Martin. “Adorno’s Contemplative Ethics.” Tr. Angus Nicholls. Contemporary Perspectives in Critical and Social Theory. Ed. John Rundell, Danielle Petherbridge, Jan Bryant, John Hewitt and Jeremy Smith. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004. 259–270.
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag | GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rundell, J. (2007). Modernity, Contingency, Dissonance: Luhmann contra Adorno, Adorno contra Luhmann. In: Magerski, C., Savage, R., Weller, C. (eds) Moderne begreifen. DUV. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8350-9676-9_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8350-9676-9_33
Publisher Name: DUV
Print ISBN: 978-3-8350-6071-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-8350-9676-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)