Aesthetics and Imagination in the Works of Adorno and Bachelard

Erik Brownrigg

Abstract

This essay connects the late critical theory of Theodor W. Adorno with the philosophy of imagination by Gaston Bachelard. I argue that these two theories are compatible with each other, can help mutually enlighten one-another’s insights, and strengthen each other’s philosophies of aesthetics and reverie. Specifically, I connect Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory with Bachelard’s Air and Dreams. By reading Adorno with Bachelard’s philosophy of imagination - and focusing on what Bachelard calls the dynamic imagination - I develop an interdisciplinary critique between a negative dialectical theory of art and a phenomenology of imagination, that put concepts and the imagination into motion in a healthy way. I argue that one of the overlaps between Adorno and Bachelard is the significance they place on unreality, specifically the unreality principle, which counterbalances the reality principle. Aesthetics for Adorno and reverie for Bachelard are presented as antidotes for human suffering in modern late capitalism and sites of utopian possibilities.