The Aesthetic Implication Of Adorno’s Criticism Of Mass Culture

The critical theory of mass culture is an important part of Adorno’s theoretical thinking.And the aesthetic implication of Adorno’s criticism of mass culture was based on the capitalist social environment at that time.It deeply criticizes and explores the manipulation,integration and abuse of various elements of art in the process of mass culture production by mass culture and capitalist cultural industry from the perspectives of the aesthetic origin of mass culture,the artistic characteristics of mass culture,and the cross interaction between mass culture and various elements of art.Adorno also revealed the long-term overall repression of capitalism internalized in the process of art development through his aesthetic implication of mass culture criticism.In Adorno’s view,art originated from religious sacrifice and worship activities at the earliest.In ancient Greece,art was entrusted with the mission of "educating" the public and opening up the public mind,and was also relieved from the fate of serving religious rites,which was dominated by heteronomy in ancient times.With the improvement of the productive forces of capitalist society,art has been endowed with the principle of self-discipline by the rich and idle bourgeoisie,which seems to give art a free space for creation,but in essence makes it a kind of aesthetic stimulus that only provides the capitalist privileged class with emotional pleasure,which also deprives art of its social function of reflecting social ills and promoting public awakening to a large extent.But after the bourgeoisie realized the huge commercial value of art as an aesthetic consumer goods,with the rise of cultural industry and the prevalence of popular culture,the principle of self-discipline of art was also deprived,and the art of western society returned to the fate of being dominated by social heteronomy in an ironic sense.But in Adorno’s time,the capitalist society was full of inexplicable terror and disaster,the shadow of war,the atrophy of beauty and kindness,the prevalence of judging ugliness,the intensification of anxiety,the difficulty of art and the obedience of mass culture to many barbaric acts,all of which made the people who had been trapped in a difficult life more helpless,even resigned,and gradually became accustomed to this long-term repression and domination.In view of the dilemma faced by art and the public,Adorno analyzed and traced the source of popular culture from the aesthetic perspective,sharply criticized the social domination and repression behind the art phenomenon,and tried to find a solution by means of "literary salvation".Admittedly,due to Adorno’s limitations of the times and his utopian fantasies about the artistic mission,the aesthetic implication of Adorno’s criticism of mass culture has not been adapted to the contemporary discourse system of literary criticism in some aspects,but his deep aesthetic thinking on mass culture,his exploration and elaboration of the essence and characteristics of mass culture from the aesthetic perspective,still has its theoretical value today.This article combs the aesthetic implication of Adorno’s mass culture criticism,tries to clarify its historical background and ideological source,and on this basis,analyzes and interprets the aesthetic implication of Adorno’s mass culture criticism.At the same time,on this basis,we will critically reflect on it,explore its theoretical value,analyze its theoretical limitations,and absorb and transform it from both positive and negative aspects.Finally,I hope it can contribute to the construction and improvement of the discourse system in the field of literary criticism in China.