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A Democratic Enlightenment MORTON SCHOOLMAN A DEMOCRATIC ENLIGHTENMENT: THE RECONCILIATION A DEMOCRATIC IMAGE, AESTHETIC ENLIGHTENMENT: A DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION, POSSIBLE THE RECONCILIATION ENLIGHTENMENT: POLITICS IMAGE, AESTHETIC THE RECONCILIATION EDUCATION, POSSIBLE IMAGE, AESTHETIC POLITICS EDUCATION, POSSIBLE POLITICS A DEMO CRATIC ENLIGHTENMENT Morton Schoolman A Demo cratic Enlightenment THE RECONCILIATION IMAGE, AESTHETIC EDUCATION, POS SI BLE POLITICS duke university press Durham and London 2020 © 2020 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Arno Pro by Westchester Publishing Ser vices Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Schoolman, Morton, [date] author. Title: A democratic enlightenment : the reconciliation image, aesthetic education, possible politics / Morton Schoolman. Other titles: Reconciliation image, aesthetic education, possible politics Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2019033253 (print) lccn 2019033254 (ebook) isbn 9781478007654 (hardcover) isbn 9781478008033 (paperback) isbn 9781478009054 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Whitman, Walt, 1819–1892—Aesthetics. | Reconciliation in literature. | Adorno, Theodor W., 1903–1969—Aesthetics. | Reconciliation in motion pictures. | Toleration—Philosophy. | Visual learning. Classification: lcc ps3242.a34 s36 2020 (print) | lcc ps3242.a34 (ebook) | ddc 811/.3—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033253 lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033254 Cover art: Auguste Rodin, Thought. Alamy Stock Photo. FOR FINN, MILO, EVAN, AND JORDAN, THEIR LOVING PARENTS ETHAN & EMILY, RACHEL & MARC, AND OUR NA- NA Long I was hugg’d close— long and long. Im mense have been the preparations for me, Faithful and friendly the arms that have help’d me. — Walt Whitman, Song of Myself CONTENTS Acknowl edgments ​ix Introduction: Past as Prologue 1 PART I THE RECONCILIATION IMAGE IN WHITMAN 1 Demo cratic Vistas: Demo cratic Enlightenment and Reconciliation 47 2 Whitman’s Discovery: Aesthetic Education through the Visual Image 79 FIRST BRIDGE Thinking with Adorno against Adorno 119 PART II THE RECONCILIATION IMAGE IN ADORNO 3 Aesthetic Reason and Reflexivity, Twin Economies and Demo cratic Effects 145 4 Aesthetic Analogues: Art and Film 166 SECOND BRIDGE The Reconciliation Image versus the Narrative Structure of Film 199 PART III THE RECONCILIATION IMAGE IN FILM 5 The elpH : Entangled in a Becoming 231 6 Gentleman’s Agreement: Beyond Tolerance 249 7 The Reconciliation Image in Film as Universal Art Form 273 Notes 281 Bibliography 301 Index 309 ACKNOWL EDGMENTS On this occasion I am in the enviable though also awkward position of belonging to a remarkable community of po liti cal theorists whose work has been so sustaining, instructive, and inspiring I can hardly begin to thank them all for their contributions to A Demo cratic Enlightenment. To recall Whitman, then, who in one of his most eloquent attempts to appreciate the demo cratic world that nurtured his great work, sang in “Salut Au Monde!” to “you each and everywhere whom I specify not, but include just the same!” I am indeed more grateful than I can say for your contributions and support. Of those whom I can properly thank in the short space allotted for such acknowl edgments, I want to begin with my editor at Duke University Press, Courtney Berger, whose involvement in this book and intellectual and profes- sional guidance have been indispensable to enabling me to develop its poten- tial. It has been a privilege as well as a plea sure to work with her, and I could not be more grateful for her time, energy, and patient support of my work. I am equally grateful to three theorists, all dear friends and colleagues, who in words both spoken and written generously provided invaluable commentary on nearly every thought in this work. My never- to- be- forgotten conversations with Jane Bennett, animated by our mutual love for the poetry and prose of Whitman and by our recognition of the po liti cal, philosophical, and aesthetic significance of his work for our time, the stunning insights into the complexi- ties of identity and difference offered by Lori Marso’s growing collection of influential studies of avant- garde films, and my discussions with Davide Pan- agia about theoretical issues multiplying with the steady growth of the field of politics and aesthetics to which he has made such original contributions, have been ever-pre sent voices to which I have closely listened even when not in their presence. For more than four de cades I have im mensely enjoyed and immeasurably benefited from the friendship and intellectual companionship of Bill Connolly and George Kateb, whose thought has impressed itself ir- resistibly into the foreground of ev ery proj ect I have undertaken and, to my great good fortune, to an even greater extent in the pre sent work. For some time arguments throughout A Demo cratic Enlightenment have been aired and tested in more academic venues than I can list, though I espe- cially benefited from speaking invitations at the University of Essex extended by Aletta Norval, the University of Southampton by David Owen, the Center for Cultural Analy sis at Rutgers University by William Galperin, the Univer- sity of Mary land by James Glass, Trent University by Davide Panagia, the Uni- versity of Regina by Shadia Drury, a Fulbright Lectureship in St. Petersburg ex- tended by Tatiana Venediktova of Moscow State University, and of course by our now decade- old Po liti cal Theory Workshop at the University at Albany. A Demo cratic Enlightenment has been greatly improved by a large collec- tion of anonymous reviewers, in par tic u lar by those solicited by Duke Uni- versity Press for their critical commentary on the entirety of my manuscript, though also by reviewers solicited by Polity, the Journal for Cultural Research, and Theory & Event, where earlier versions of chapters of this book were pub- lished. And I am grateful to Ian Verstegen and Roger Rothman for including a se lection from one of my chapters in their fascinating The Art of the Real: Visual Studies and New Materialisms, and to John Seery, whose inclusion of my work in his outstanding collection, A Po liti cal Companion to Walt Whitman, drew a review by Betsy Erkkila focusing my attention more intently on an impor tant theoretical prob lem in Whitman’s work to which I have responded in my introduction. And while each of the scholarly contributions to A Po liti­ cal Companion to Walt Whitman added to its distinction, the essays by Cris- tina Beltran, Jason Frank, Jack Turner, and of course Jane Bennett and George Kateb were indispensable to my efforts to think about Whitman in new ways. I am also grateful to many friends, colleagues, and students who read and commented on chapters of A Demo cratic Enlightenment as its arguments were evolving. Elizabeth Anker, Emily Beausoleil, Stephanie Erev, James Glass, Sharon Krause, and Torrey Shanks were all extremely thoughtful in ways that pushed my work forward, and I am very grateful to Martin Jay for a challeng- x • Acknowl edgments ing and impor tant list of issues I addressed in the second part of the book. Several gradu ate students from the University at Albany po liti cal science and En glish departments, Sean McKeever, Nathaniel Williams, Aidan Thompson, and James Searle, have engaged issues in my work, teaching me as much as I hope to have taught them. Final preparation of my manuscript is indebted to Stephan Stohler’s generous expressions of collegiality and computer ex- pertise, which saved me considerable time. I am extremely grateful to Sandra Korn and Liz Smith of Duke University Press for their editorial care oversee- ing the production of A Demo cratic Enlightenment, and to William Hedberg, se nior vice provost and associate vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Albany, for approving sabbatical leaves with- out which this work would have taken considerably longer to complete. Fi nally, my brother, Steve, was wonderfully generous with his time, video expertise, and intuitive grasp of how to convey the meaning of film, all of which were indispensable to his production of film clips fromThe Help and Gentleman’s Agreement enabling me to study thes e two theoretically rich films far more closely than would other wise have been pos si ble. And to Maureen, also known as Na- Na, my dearest and best friend and heart of my heart for a half century, I am, as always, more grateful than I have been able to say in a lifetime for the love and support that has been forever unfailing, and I am as grateful to her for discussions of this work as thought provoking and helpful as any I have had. Acknowl edgments • xi INTRODUCTION Past as Prologue Today’s nationalist po liti cal climate, globally, though especially in Amer i ca, is altogether at odds with the argument of A Demo cratic Enlightenment: The Rec­ onciliation Image, Aesthetic Education, Pos si ble Politics. So wholly at odds that my work’s core ideas— all of which are included in its title— have gone unrec- ognized despite circulating in one of the most ubiquitous media of popu lar culture: film. Consequently, as I now introduce these ideas the danger exists they may be regarded as utopian even though they are in the pro cess of taking shape in an advanced visual medium that is also our most advanced visual art form. For all the while they are beginning to crystallize in film, and in cin- ematic images announcing their cultural arrival and registering their po liti cal presence, they may appear chimerical in a po liti cal context hostile as well as deaf and blind to them.
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