Theory & Event

Reading Adorno against himself, I further develop his concept of aesthetic reason in Aesthetic Theory to formulate the image of reconciliation in modern art in a way enabling us to then find its aesthetic analog in film. If we were able to find in film the same image of reconciliation Adorno found in art, as the new avatar of aesthetic reason film would perform the work of enlightenment Adorno held was produced only by the modern artwork. Circulating ubiquitously in film, the reconciliation image would achieve democratic enlightenment in two forms – by modeling one of the highest ideals of democratic life and by teaching it through the media of mass culture.