Adorno versus Lyotard: Modern und Post-modern Aesthetics

Does the term post-modernity signify an epoch after the modern one? Or does the expression post-modernity characterize rather an attitude already perceptible during modernity? Though discussed controversially time and again, this question nevertheless has not been answered satisfactorily to date. In order to contribute to a clarification of the situation as far as music is concerned, the proposed research focuses on an interface between the musicological definition of modernity and the philosophical discussion on post-modernity: the relations between Theodor W. Adorno `s philosophy of music and Jean-François Lyotard`s post-modern aesthetics. Due to his introduction of the term post-modernity into the debate Lyotard is considered post-modernity`s "founder". Adorno, for his part, can be regarded as an advocate of modernity due to the immense impact of his philosophical writings on music. Through a systematic exploration of the understanding of modernity as well as of post-modernity the proposed research aims at drawing attention to the fact that Adorno`s philosophical notion of modernity was of significant relevance to Lyotard`s conception of the post-modern paradigm. The necessity of the project arises from three main facts: first, the examination responds to the existing lack in research as far as the definition and description of post-modernity in music is concerned; second, the research takes into account that there is no systematic study on the relations between Adorno and Lyotard; third, through a specific approach of philosophical terms and aesthetical categories, the project responds to the need to bring the discourses on post-modernity in philosophy and musicology closer together. By comparing the aesthetic positions of Adorno and Lyotard the examination aims at illuminating categories relevant for a sophisticated understanding of today`s artistic production such as subject, work of art, form, representation, rationality, totality and fragmentation. Thus, the study is not only related to philosophical and scholarly questions, but is also of relevance to today`s practical musical life.