Reading Guideline: Lecture 3
· Adorno, T. & Horkheimer, XXXXXXXXXXThe culture industry: Enlightenment as mass deception. In M. Mccormick, R., & Guenther-Pal, A. (2014), German essays on film: German essays on film. (pp. 169–180). Retrieved from https:
ebookcentral.proquest.com/li
mtroyal-ebooks
eader.action?ppg=184&docID=766021&tm= XXXXXXXXXX (Click on Section 3: Nazi Germany" and then on the "Intellectuals in Exile" sub-section. The first chapter of this subsection is "The culture industry".)
· Axelrod, M. (Director XXXXXXXXXX). Maurizio Cattelan: Be right back [Video File]. Film Movement Exclusives. Retrieved https:
mtroyal.kanopy.com/video/maurizio-cattelan-be-right-back
1. READER’S RESPONSE
Write a reader’s response journal entry as you encounter (read/view) each item above. See the content provided on BB concerning writing a reader’s response journal entry. Remember that you are not summarizing content in any way, shape or form. You are being asked to think – to read critically and to enact critical thinking skills. What do you think about the matters raised? What thinking does it inspire in you? You should have no citations whatsoever in your Reader’s Response because everything you write is your own thinking. Remember that it is recommended that you create a grid with two columns. In the left column, place the word, phrase, sentence or idea that has caught your attention. In the right column, place your response to the word, phrase, sentence or idea. The content in the right-hand column is your reader’s response – your thinking, your ideas, your original thoughts - your response. Minimum length of 400 words per item. No maximum length.
2. CONTEXTUALIZE
Before reading The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception, take a moment to reflect on your own understanding of art and popular culture:
a. What is art? What is popular culture? Is there a difference between both phenomena?
Thoughtfully explore these ideas and write expressively about your “thinking.”
The following questions are based on your critical reading of Adorno and Horkheimer: The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.
3. IDENTIFY
a. What is Adorno and Horkheimer’s central argument?
. Vocabulary
The following are key theoretical terms introduced by Adorno and Horkheimer in this reading. Define them in your own words. Be comprehensive and exhaustive. A single sentence is not an adequate response.
· Standardization
· Culture industry
· Technical or technological rationality
· Art
4. INTERPRET
“The attitude of the public, which ostensibly and actually favours the system of the culture industry, is a part of the system not an excuse for it. (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1944, p. 172).
Explain the quote at length and illustrate it with a past or present example.
5. CONNECT
Watch the first 30 minutes of the documentary Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back XXXXXXXXXXand answer the following question.
[Note that the person speaking as Maurizio Cattelan is Masimiliano Gioni, his official impersonator in public lectures and interviews. This is explained at 1:05:00.]
Would Adorno and Horkheimer consider Cattelan’s work art or a culture industry product? Provide reasons to support your answer. Be as articulate as possible.
Backgrounder: Adorno and Horkheimer: The Culture Industry
The Frankfurt Institute of Social Research was created in 1923 with the clear objective of advancing Marxism as a scientific discipline. To this end, it em
aced an interdisciplinary approach to the “study of workers’ and employees’ attitudes toward a variety of issues in Germany and the rest of developed Europe,” as stated by Horkheimer in 1931 (Jay, 1973, p. 26).1 The Institute attracted philosophers, musicologists, political scientists and economists, who offered economic, sociological and psychological interpretations of public statistics, surveys and observational data. With the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany in 1933, the Institute was closed and its members, many of them Jewish, were forced to leave Germany and continue their work first in New York and later in Berkeley.
The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (1944) was written by Adorno and Horkheimer during their exile in the United States. The text is characteristic of the Frankfurt School’s study of culture as a social practice and language, which departed from Marxist economic reductionism and traditional aesthetic formalism. For Adorno, in particular, culture is not just the expression of class interests but a complex social phenomenon. In fact, as Martin Jay notes, the Frankfurt School moved further away from orthodox Marxism in America at a time when its members felt “disillusioned with the Soviet Union, no longer marginally sanguine about the working classes in the West, appalled by the integrative power of mass culture” (Jay, 1973, p. 256).
Horkheimer proposed the term “culture industry” to dissociate mass culture from popular culture. The products of the culture industry are not popular because they are not produced by the people and do not express the values and worldview of the people. The principles of commodified culture are standardization and the abolition of individuality. In contrast, true art expresses contradictions and challenges domination; it reflects and questions reality and demands participation from the audience.
Adorno and Horkheimer’s critique of mass culture is one of the most influential works produced by the Frankfurt School in exile. However, in recent years, the term “culture industry” has lost its negative connotation and is frequently used to discuss cultural production in general. This may well be an indication that the commodification of culture extends beyond the field of mass-produced culture to engulf “the high arts.” The documentary Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back (2016) explores this dynamic by looking at the contrasting forces of commodification and resistance in the work of Italian contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan.
MDWF 3101: Interprofessional Health Placements
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Guidelines - Academic Reader Response Journals
Rather than simply summarizing what is presented to you and what is included in an article or clip, respond to what you hear and read. What do you think? What resonates for you? What stands out? What seems odd? Make connections. Make sense of it for yourself. These types of activities fall into what is known as critical, creative, or reflective thinking. Consider the following writing strategies as well. Remember it’s the thinking that counts. You are NOT writing an essay. It is a journal entry type academic response. There is no enframing by insisting that you adhere to a style guide or general essay writing protocol. This is a form of free-flowing writing. Please word-process and double space.
When creating your reader response, generate a two-column grid. In the left column, include the word, phrase, sentence or idea that has caught your attention, and in the right column, write your response.
+Come to terms with the fact that you are not writing an essay. What you create will not resemble an essay in any way. Do not write an introduction or conclusion – neither would be possible, actually. What you write will be recursive and messy, disorganized and disjointed. It will be a string of your own thoughts – often unrelated to the previous or the next. It’s a record of your thinking as you read or view an article or clip. Feel free to change your mind as you go, and note it. Doing so would not only be appropriate but provide evidence of you being thoughtful and aware.
+Respond to specifics – a specific word, phrase, sentence, or idea. Do NOT read an entire article, and then try to respond to all that you have heard. Doing so would not be possible. You are responding to distinct parts, one after the other – piece by piece through an article.
+Agree or disagree with what is said and what you read. Doing so locates you in the topic. Noting your agreement or disagreement “locates” you in the matter at hand. Where are you located in the topic? Expressing why you agree or disagree is a base level of response to every sentence/paragraph in an article.
+Connect cu
ent content with earlier content from this course – or other courses (perhaps a GenEd, perhaps COMM 2500).
+Ponder words or phrases that are new to you. Dwell there. Google them. Guess at their meaning based on the way they are used. Try writing a sentence using the word or words. Articulate the relationship between this new concept and the general topic of the chapter.
+State what you believe. Doing so absolutely and decisively locates you in the topic at hand.
+Process your learning; process your thinking. A response journal is a place for “process writing.” Note your first impressions. Be aware of your observations along the way – your thinking: Use phrases such as “Oh, now I understand why the author is upset about “x.” I didn’t realize the implications of the new policy. I’m more upset than the author for the following reasons…” Your goal in writing an academic response journal is to come to terms with content and ideas. The goal isn’t to memorize something or summarize it. It’s to internalize it. What does it mean to you? What are you going to do with this statement/this knowledge from a critical thinking perspective? When you write a reader’s response journal entry, you are engaging in critical reading: evaluating, assessing, constructing, identifying, detecting, recognizing, reflecting, applying, deconstructing, analyzing, and critiquing.
+Ask questions. Part of writing a response journal entry involves you asking good questions. And then, be sure to attempt an answer, a response, for your own query. It doesn’t have to be complete, or final, or even co
ect. But dwell with the question for a few moments. Ponder it and its implications.
+Include yourself. Start with the word “I.” It puts you and your story into the topic at hand very nicely and naturally. This is where your horizon meets the horizon of the content being examined – where you connect with the text as a reader.
+Include matters outside the course – even outside the university. Given the nature of the course (Media, Culture and Communication), nothing would be considered outside the parameters of discussion.
+State your own conclusions or observations.
+State how you feel about what have read or heard. Observe your emotions.
+Relay how the matter has played out in your life.
+Be aware when you make a great observation or reaction – when you ask a good question. And then dwell there for a few moments. Write your way into a full-o
ed response to your initial, base observation. In other words, stop and speculate where your comment came from. What’s behind it? Underneath it? What supports it? What does it mean to you – in the fullest sense? For example, a great observation might be that you found a statement naïve. Good start. Now flesh