Frankfurt School Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is one of the most complex words in the English language according to Raymond Williams?
Culture
Culture can refer to the general process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development, a way of life, and the works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity.
Who defined culture as a ‘repository of human values’?
Matthew Arnold
Arnold was a poet and cultural critic who emphasized the significance of great art and literature.
What are the two basic definitions of democracy according to Williams?
- Proletarian/Socialist: a form of ‘popular class rule’
- Bourgeois/Capitalist: ‘rule by representatives, including elected representatives’
What is the main focus of Sigmund Freud’s ‘Civilisation and Its Discontents’?
The conflict between civilized society and primitive impulses
Freud discusses how modern society has unleashed primitive forces resulting in destruction and chaos.
What did the Frankfurt School seek to understand regarding the working class?
Why the working class did not rise up
This inquiry is central to their analysis of culture and society.
What does ‘Immanent Critique’ measure?
Society against its own ideals and aspirations
This critique unveils hidden contradictions within the social structure.
What is one key theme of the Frankfurt School’s ‘The Culture Industry’?
- Individuality
- Relation of Leisure & Work Time
- Culture as Commodity
- Homogeneity
- Culture as Ideology
How does the Culture Industry reproduce society according to Adorno?
It produces individuals who bear society’s disfiguring mark
Individuals appear free but are actually products of economic and social structures.
What does ‘Pseudo-individuality’ refer to?
The capitalist mode of production needs the ‘individual’ produced via the ideology of ‘individualism’
It highlights how consumers are offered pre-fabricated options disguised as unique.
How is leisure time organized according to the Frankfurt School?
In the same way as industrialization organizes work time
Examples include organized leisure activities like Club Med and cruise ships.
True or False: Conservatives view popular culture as a threat to authority.
True
They often advocate for censorship and warning labels on popular culture.
What is the term used for the juxtaposition of two unlike images in John Heartfield’s work?
Photomontage
This technique conveys a specific message through contrasting visuals.
Fill in the blank: According to Adorno, culture as a ________ is a key theme in understanding the relationship between culture and society.
Commodity
What does Adorno argue about the relationship between work and leisure?
Strain and boredom at work lead to avoidance of effort in leisure time
Leisure activities are often structured similarly to work.
