Abstract
The aesthetic proposition of “Artwork as Monad” expresses a special conceptualization of art works. This notion took shape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, during a period when transformation of the relationship between man and the universe reconstructed the empirical world. Walter Benjamin, through his critique of modern mechanical cosmology and Kantian empiricism, proposed a new cosmic empirical theory, thus constructing a world of Konstellation that laid an experiential foundation for knowledge. Theodor W. Adorno dynamically remolded it via negative dialectics. From the micro to the macro, the artwork-as-monad structure includes Machtfeld of art, consciousness of Konstellation and social history. Within the philosophical turn of 20th-century Western Marxism, the artwork-as-monad theory has released the potential for ideological critique. It reveals the aesthetic illusion inherent in capitalist society through the dichotomy between the atom and the monad. However, the theoretical positioning of artwork-as-monad theory also indicates its limits in political practice, as later Marxist theorists extended these ideas into two distinct tendencies merging with political art.
Keywords
artwork as monad, the monad, Konstellation, Kunstmachtfeld, negative dialectics
First Page
201
Last Page
212
Recommended Citation
Li, Ruoyu. 2025. "Artwork as Monad: Theodor Adorno's Interpretation and Reconstruction of Walter Benjamin." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 45, (1): pp.201-212. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol45/iss1/19
