‘The Whole Is the False’: The Gesamtkunstwerk, Kiefer and Theodor Adorno’s ‘Negative Dialectics’

Abstract

The Enlightenment had a profound impact on most, if not all, aspects of Western civilization, transforming politics, science, education, art and culture, as well as moral and religious life. Yet its most significant consequence, according to some commentators, was in none of these areas. The true significance of the Enlightenment, they believe, was that it permanently altered the human mindset, and not for the better. The paradoxical consequence of the so-called ‘Age of Reason’ was that something went catastrophically wrong with human rationality, and although it took place in the realm of consciousness, this event has had – and continues to have – drastic results in the realm of society. Indeed, it has been forcefully argued that it will lead inexorably to the totalization of modern society, and the complete exclusion of the possibility of dissent.