Three historical figures in Theodor Adorno's immanent critique: old-fashioned, style and tradition.

Abstract

We introduce the notion of immanent critique in Theodor Adorno's thought based on three historical categories relating to art criticism: the old-fashioned, style and tradition. Each of these notions can only be thought in critical contexts, i. e., in specific cases with sited artworks or ideological critique. The production of the old-fashioned is a characteristic of the ideology of the culture industry, but on the other hand, affirms the critical actuality of the work of art to reject it. The style, characteristic of an epoch as baroque or romanticism, exceeds the perception of the artist from his own historicity while practice confirms some of the features and denies others in the specific materiality in concrete artworks. The tradition, situated in the antinomy of modern art, can only be thought as a rupture: stand on its own or be fetishized.