LEADER 04049ctm a2200385Ia 4500001 146660 005 20240621183459.0 008 071207s2006 xx a rb 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocn276452366 035 146660 049 LHMA 040 CDN |beng |erda |cCDN |dLHM 050 4 NX650.H57 |bW45 2006a 090 NX650.H57 |bW45 2006 100 1 Weinstein, Andrew G. 245 10 After Adorno : |bthe essayistic impulse in Holocaust-related art / |cby Andrew G. Weinstein. 264 0 |c2006. 300 xiv, 366 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, 2006. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 332-366). 520 This dissertation argues that Holocaust-related art is best understood not as a product of limits arising from ethical concerns about Holocaust representation, but instead within a contemporary art context. It explores the epistemological approach common to much Holocaust-related and "mainstream" contemporary art, and it investigates how neither Holocaust scholars nor art world professionals generally acknowledge the commonality.To demonstrate commonality, this dissertation engages Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy's primary concern, the subversion of positivist identity thinking. (Indeed, such subversion can be understood as a central concern of recent Holocaust-related and mainstream art.) Identity thinking defines the other with reductive terms (i.e. valuable/valueless), and Adorno recognizes its pervasive presence in society, most notoriously in Nazi death camps. Through the conceptual approach and literary style of his philosophy as exemplified by "The Essay as Form," Adorno presents an alternative model of thinking which combines the exactitude of research with the freedom of imagination. This dissertation argues that many Holocaust-related and mainstream artworks since the mid-1970s may be regarded as Adornian essays.Chapter 1 examines the marginalization of Holocaust-related art by Holocaust scholars because of beliefs about ethical exclusivity. Chapter 2 tentatively accepts this exclusivity by introducing Adorno's largely Holocaust-inspired model. Chapter 3 analyzes two pioneering Adornian essayistic artworks, Claude Lanzmann's Shoah and Art Spiegelman's Maus, while Chapter 4 considers later Holocaust-related works by Judy Chicago, Melissa Gould and Aharon Gluska from Adornian and feminist perspectives. With models from art world theorists Hal Foster, Fredric Jameson and others, Chapter 5 offers a survey of contemporary art that accommodates Holocaust representation. Then, toward explaining the marginalization of Holocaust-related art by art world professionals, Chapter 6 examines an apparent art world discomfort with public displays of Jewish ethnicity. Representing the attitudes of two mutually exclusive communities, Chapters 1 and 6 bracket the study, while material between them aims to demonstrate how each community conceptually approaches the other. The Conclusion regards a danger of the essayistic approach, the tendency to sacralize its material, and considers how, since the early 1990s, a new strategy of abjection in both Holocaust-related and "mainstream" art avoids that risk. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services. |ex22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art. 600 10 Adorno, Theodor W., |d1903-1969 |xCriticism and interpretation. 856 4 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1179956371&sid=31&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |uhttp://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib146660/3222016.pdf |zHosted by USHMM. 852 0 |bstacks |hNX650.H57 |iW45 2006 852 |bwww 852 |bebook