Lukács and the Work of Art: Into the History, Out From the History

by Federico Sollazzo (p.sollazzo@inwind.it)

Here below, the Abstract of the talk of Federico Sollazzo, A Lukácsian Legacy in the Work of Art as a Pathway to Otherness, provided at the International Conference, The Legacy of Georg Lukács: An International Conference, by the ELTE and the CEU Universities of Budapest, in 2017.

Abilitazioni in mala tempora

di Federico Sollazzo (p.sollazzo@inwind.it)

Come gli addetti ai lavori (termine brutto ma che in questo caso rende bene le circostanze) sanno, è tempo di altre tornate di abilitazione scientifica nazionale.

Faccio il mio in bocca al lupo a chi vorrà partecipare.

Per quanto mi riguarda, ho però deciso di non sottopormi a questa procedura.

Non tanto per l'impersonalità della procedura.

Non tanto perché 5 persone decidono per tutta Italia, e tanti saluti all'autonomia delle università.

Non tanto perché la cosa somiglia più a un placebo che a una soluzione.

Non tanto perché diversi degli elementi che vengono considerati importanti ai fini della valutazione (come la cosiddetta collocazione editoriale o la partecipazione a convegni), si acquistano, letteralmente (come al mercato): sempre più spesso, basta pagare un contributo di pubblicazione (proporzionale al prestigio e al potere editoriale dell'editore) o una tassa di partecipazione al convegno, et les jeux sont faits.

Non tanto perché nelle passate tornate ci sono state decisioni (per il sì e per il no) dovute a conoscenze ed interessi, e presumibilmente così sarà anche in futuro.

I motivi che mi spingono a tenermi alla larga da un simile tipo di valutazione sono invece essenzialmente i seguenti (che purtroppo, mutatis mutandis, tornano in tantissimi altri Paesi, latu sensu, occidentali).

The contribution of Critical Theory in understanding society

by Federico Sollazzo (p.sollazzo@inwind.it)

(Here below, the editorial of the n. 4, 2016 of the Journal 'Polis', titled 'The contribution of Critical Theory in understanding society', edited by Federico Sollazzo)

Abstract

                         Is Critical Theory a part of our knowledge we can access just in a kind of museum of history of ideas, or is Critical Theory a living part of our culture on which we can still rely in order to understand and (re)orient our society? To answer this basic question, and many others, and also to shed some light on what seems to be a recent abuse of the term “critical”, in this issue will be addressed, under different points of view, the meaning of the expression Critical Theory.

                 The papers here collected are divided in an English and an Italian section, to facilitate the reader who is confident, or prefers, only one of these languages. In both sections, Critical Theory is addressed in a twofold way: as regards its origins in the so-called School of Frankfurt and as concerns its further and contemporary developments, from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Keywords: Critical Theory, Society, Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology.

            The locution Critical Theory has become increasingly widespread and influential in the last decades. If, on the one hand, it indicates a growing interest in this field, on the other, it risks to inflate this term and concept, until the point that it can mean everything and nothing. Therefore, the first task imagined for the present issue is to take stock of the meaning of the expression Critical Theory: what the/a Critical Theory is. Indeed, only after having clarified it, it is possible to move forward, investigating how a theory, eventually considered critical, can offer an interpretation and, with it, a possible orientation of society. To be close to this perspective, in this issue Critical Theory is not taken in a general, generalist and generic meaning of problematization of something (as recently often happens), but in the particular meaning it had and, notwithstanding several shadows, has in the tradition of the Institut für Sozialforschung of Frankfurt. That is to say, designating particular topics on the base of a particular background, being those topics resumable (in a kind of list of possible keywords) as: social change – and its possible subject –, capitalism, mass culture technology, instrumental rationality, alienation, repression, domination – of man over nature and man –, critique, emancipation, reason, and being that scenario nothing more and nothing less than the Western civilization.