The Aesthetics of Liberation: a Critique of Art Under Capitalism

In my thesis I examine the commodification of art in late-stage capitalism by looking at Karl Marx's early writings and relevant literature in the Frankfurt School of critical theory, especially Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. The question I have is whether mass culture, popular art, etc are a progressive force as Benjamin argues or a suppressive one as Adorno suggests. I also investigate the loss of a certain disinterested, distanced aesthetic attitude in modernity; it seems that art has become "closer," more usable, and more political in the digital age when anybody can make, say, a meme. My research connects the current situation of popular art with Benjamin's ideas about the loss of a certain spirituality or "aura" in reproducible art (e.g. photography and film), as opposed to the art of the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. Ultimately I argue that the reproducibility of art in the modern digital age has endowed it with radical possibilities to agitate the masses.