文化工业理论再释:审美资本主义语境中的再思考

Re-interpretation of Cultural Industry Theory:Rethinking in the Context of Aesthetic Capitalism

法兰克福学派的文化工业理论是大众文化研究的标杆。它深刻揭示了大众文化对人的控制和支配问题,显示出马克思主义批评理论的文化政治视野。英美文化研究兴起以来,理论界对于文化工业理论持有否定批判的态度。这些批判将阿多诺的文本视为文化工业经典理论表达,忽视了本雅明的思想,从而对文化工业理论的认知具有片面性。如果将法兰克福学派的大众文化理论作为整体来看,它就具有辩证性,既有否定的一面,也有肯定的一面。随着西方后工业社会过渡到审美资本主义阶段,大众文化呈现出许多新特点。在这种语境中,重新思考文化工业理论的有效性和局限性就具有现实意义。文化工业理论为审美资本主义批判提供了纲领性预演,对于分析审美资本主义时代的文化现象和理论问题仍然具有重要价值。

The cultural industry theory of Frankfurt School is the benchmark of popular culture research. It reveals the control and domination of popular culture over people,and shows the cultural and political vision of Marxist critical theory. Since the rise of British and American cultural studies,theorists have taken a negative and critical attitude towards the theory of cultural industry. This critical attitude regards Adorno’s text as the only theory of cultural industry, and ignores Benjamin’s ideas so that it has one-side cognition of cultural industry theory. If we take the mass culture theory text of Frankfurt School as a whole, it is dialectical, both negative and positive. With the transition from post-industrial society to aesthetic capitalism in the west,popular culture presents many new features. In this context,it is realistic to rethink the validity and limitations of cultural industry theory. The theory of cultural industry provides a programmatic preview for the criticism on aesthetic capitalism,and is still of great value for the analysis of cultural phenomena and theoretical issues in the era of aesthetic capitalism.