Family, Inner Life, and the Amusement Industry

I critically engage Max Horkheimer's Art and Mass Culture from Critical Theory. I split Horkheimer's essay into three parts, which correspond to three sections of my essay. The first section details objective historical conditions that have lead up to Horkheimer's diagnosis. The second section describes change in consciousness that corresponds to these conditions, and third section outlines Horkheimer's critique of Mortimer Adler and art that belongs to the amusement industry. I describe basic elements of Horkheimer's aesthetic theory, use several pieces of art as examples of application of theory, and provide contemporary analogues in order to illustrate relevance of essay to today's world

Amusement · Business · Sociology · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · Psychology · Social Psychology