Promise and Negativity

Abstract

This article explores the definition of art as a broken promise of happiness, as it was offered by Theodor W. Adorno in his Aesthetic Theory. My general claim is that Adorno’s definition of art brings together in a novel manner two apparently conflicting aesthetic determinations of artistic phenomena: on the one hand, on the shadow of the Hegelian tradition, art is considered in its negative character; on the other hand, along the lines of a famous statement from Stendhal, art harbors a promise of happiness. On this basis, I intend to show the tension arising from the combination of an aesthetics of negativity, which stems from Hegel’s determined negativity, and an aesthetics of the promise whose main focus is the logic of fulfillment. I will also state that Adorno’s notion of art not only allows to glimpse at a connection which is barely noticed in other different conceptions of art, but also, when the tension is further developed, sheds light on certain ambivalent presuppositions, which directly concern human praxis itself.