On The Politics of Aesthetics and Postmodernism

The Politics of Post-Modern Aesthetics: Habermas Contra Foucault Author(s): Thomas L. Dumm Source: Political Theory, Vol.
16, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 209-228 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/191706 . Accessed: 21/01/2014 17:01
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THE TRIALOF POSTMODERNISM
II. THE POLITICS OF POST-MODERN AESTHETICS Habermas Contra Foucault

L. DUMM THOMAS AmherstCollege
LANGUAGE MAY WELLBE a series of gaps, a multiplicityof divisions,doubling,ramifications, cracks,fissures,spaces,holes, rips, infamous as a fragments. WhileDerrida's differance maybe understood clever trivialization of that prephilosophicalprinciple that splits monadesand establishesnomads,it may also, and perhapsbetter,be known as a designationfor the vertigothat accompanies tropological to modern moments.Dizzinessnot onlyis the mostsignificant response thefeeling poetry,as TheodorAdornooncenoted,butmaybe precisely to eliminate in their thatlatemodern philosophers agonistically attempt fearfuldesireto reestablish lawsof truth,despitewhatmightbe claimed 1 Thepursuit to truthbeyondlaw. astheirresponsibility of lawsindicates a subtledissolution(solution)on the partof philosophers, for this is an era whentheireffortsexist as impositions,collapsingin the face of the criteriaby which they judge and arejudged. One might formulatea crude rule of thumb. Reconstructive efforts made in the name of totalities can best be evaluated in terms of their fidelity to some
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wish to thank the following people: Brenda Bright, Karin Bornstein, SusanBuck-Morss, MichaelBudd,William Connolly, KathyFerguson, Leah Hewitt,Alex Hooke, GeorgeKateb, TomKeenan,AndrewParker,MichaelShapiro, TracyStrong,Mark Warren, and StephenWhite.An earlierversionof this articlewas presentedas a paper at a Foundationsof Political TheoryGroup panel entitled"The Visual Aesthetics of Domination, "at theAPSA AnnualMeeting, August,1986.
Vol. 16No. 2, May 1988209-228 POLITICAL THEORY, ? 1988SagePublications, Inc. 209
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POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988
performativeprinciple. Not only capitalism, but all foundational philosophies,must deliverthe goods. Yet an escape route from such deliveranceis continually present in the ongoing displacementof meaning,whichsignalsthe appearance of tropesandthoseconstitutive gapswithinwhich"allthe formsof rhetoric cometo life-the twistsand turns... catachresis, andmanyother metonymy, metaphor, hypallage, hieroglyphs drawnby the rotationof wordsintothevoluminous massof language."2Language lives by its death-is excessive-so that to contemplate contestingits infinitudeis impossible.One can shiftfrom one rhetoricalmode to another,but one can neverdo even so little as that withoutfirstfearfullyengaging the painthat precedes the pleasure of the sublime.3 This sentence:
I can changeas eye beholdI
can be understoodas an aural-visual totem to poststructuralist claims that the internalenunciations of the samesounds(I ameye andeye am I), the extraordinarybanality of any language'sinternal twists of meaning(be-hold-the hold of being),the lowly pun, constitutesthe most common experienceavailableto modernauthors(authorities). The context within which such punningoccurs for the inheritorsof European nihilismis one of sharedidiocy.Idiocymaybe theexperience mostwidelyavailable to thosewho livein liberal-democratic of regimes truth.It followsthat the firstcomfortto be foundin the contemporary of theinfiniteramifications rediscovery of language is this:Despitesuch idiocy,despitetheinevitability of failurein allcommunications, thevery specificityof the failureto communicate expresses the ineffablequality of life. If suchanunderstanding of failurecanbe keptin mind,a political openingbetween the philosophical andthe artistic mightbe articulated. For, as Adorno also remindedhis readers,"Philosophyis the most seriousof things,but then againit is not that serious."4 Language may also be thought of as a medium within which communicativeactions take place. When language is so depicted, mattersturnseriousagain.Eachexcessof language comesto bejudged by some metastandardto determine whether it is progressiveor regressive. Suchan organization of language is perceived as necessary if thereis to be the completionof liberatory projects.But suchdemands for clarity and precision of language have the danger of always becoming demands for uniformity,thus taking on the quality of recurring symptomsof a fear of disorderor a fear of discourse.5
Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT
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In this articleI arguethat potentialfor liberationin a relentlessly fragmented worldof partialrepresentations not canbetterberecovered, by furthering of projectsof judgment,but by adoptingthe perspective whathas recently,andinfamously, I wish beencalledpost-modernism. to incite thought concerningthe currentcontroversyon the political characterof post-modernism and to explicate some of the meanings post-modernismmakes available to the subjects of late modern societies.6But becauseof the explicitlyderivativecharacterof postmodernistworks, no one can claim to be writing a theory of "it." Instead,one proceedsfromready-made to ready-made object,relying, withlaughter, those who do not hesitate to namethatthingso asto upon condemnit. HABERMASON POST-MODERNISM Jurgen Habermasopposes the very idea of post-modernism, and, throughhis opposition,unifiesheterogeneous positionsconcerninga into a moreor lesscoherentdoctrine.For Habermas, varietyof subjects post-modernism, as a theoreticalposition as well as a set of practices, undermines all modernprojectsfor liberation.In a shortbut pungent entitled"Modernity-An Incomplete essay7 he identifies Project," three attacks on modernity.The first is that launched by the forces of American neoconservatism, whichhasfoundits mostbrilliant statement in theworkof DanielBell.Thelastonehe mentionsonlyin passing: that one held by "old" conservatives,who seem to advocate an active withdrawalfrom the nihilistic politics of the presentto a position anteriorto modernity(here he is referringto thinkerssuch as Leo Strauss and his followers). The other group he discusses are those affiliated with what has come to be called the poststructuralist movement,particularly Foucaultand Derrida.8 Mostgenerally, Habermas understands post-modernism primarily as a recognition of theexhaustion of thatimpulsein aesthetic modernity to revolt against tradition. That exhaustionhas several consequences, most notably, and for Habermas,most dangerously, the intellectual of modernity. advocacyof an absoluterejection For him, this rejection is most sinisterlyrepresented in the attackon modernitylaunchedby thosewhomhe hasreferred to as the"youngconservatives," because,in Habermas's understanding, they have becomeentrappedby the least attractive of Heidegger's political implications thought. Theseaudacious Derridaand Foucault,have claimed thinkers,especially
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as theirown the revelations of a decentered from the subjectivity, emancipated imperatives of workandusefulness, andwiththisexperience theystepoutsidethe modernworld. On the basis of modem attitudesthey justify an irreconcilable antimodernism. Theyremoveinto the sphereof the far-away andthe archaic, the spontaneous of imagination, powers andemotion.To instrumental self-experience reasontheyjuxtaposein Manichean fashiona principle only accessible through be it thewillto powerorsovereignty, evocation, forceof the BeingortheDionysiac poetical.9
Poststructuralists subvertmodernitythroughthe misuseof one of its own liberatingforces,that of the modernaesthetic,whichconstantly questionsthe groundsof its own being. The position of these "antimodernists" concernsHabermasmost deeply,for it represents the most radicalrejectionof the possibilityof completingwhat he calls the "projectof modernity." For Habermas such a project can be realized through a particularutilization of language. Thepossibility of language becoming increasingly transparent solvesthepoliticalparadoxof a partial a morefully rationality, allowing rationalsocietyto come into beingthroughcommunicative actions. Habermas's deployment of an immenseandcomplicated theoretical apparatus is oriented towardclearing the grounds for the establishment of intersubjective communicative rationality. Such a grounding would represent the completion of the projectof modernity in thatit is the only route throughwhich the establishment of conditionsof freedomand justice becomes possible.l1Of course, such a project is never really complete, but its open-ended character in itself has its charms, thesavinggraceof a utopianthinking particularly againstwhichfailures can be measuredand "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of people assessed. StephenWhitehas clarifiedHabermas's understanding of the role that aestheticsis to play in this emancipatory projectand Habermas's oppositionto the countervisionof Foucault. Whitethus adumbrates reasonswhy Habermas opposesso vehemently the worksof poststructuralistthinkersmore generally."I He notes that, for Habermas,it is crucialthat one remember that a radicalaestheticis only availableto modernsubjects becauseit originates in the samephenomena thathave ledto the increased differentiation of spheres of valuein modern culture. Therearethreesuchspheresfor Habermas (in generalcorrespondence withKant'scategories): aesthetics, butalso scienceandtechnology,and modernlaw and postconventional morality.Whitenotes that "Habermas wants to assert that learningprocessesgo on not only in the
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scientific-technological and the sphere,but also in the moral-practical aesthetic-expressive spheres."'2 Modernityhas so far emphasized but one dimensionof its potential(the scientific-technological), but that is not reasonenoughto rejectmodernity If adequate "completely." use is made of the resources of aesthetic-expressive and moral-practical potentials for learning,then a richer and more just society can be realizedwithinthe boundsof modernity.13 Butthe aestheticdimensionmustbe structured by Habermas so as to enablea kindof learning to takeplace.The substance of this learning is "tomakesubjects morereflective in relationto who andwhatis actually theinterpretation structuring of theirBedurfnisnatur."'4 Whiteconcedes that there is a compulsivenessto this "use"of aesthetics,that this disciplineof self-reflection is engagedin a projectthatmightrender the self moreandmoretransparent and,hence,accessible to instruments of control. However,he goes on to claimthat this is but one aspectof the learningavailablethroughmodernaestheticexperiences.
The other side conformsless to a model of interrogation and more to one of unexpected of thingsexceeding theconfinesof anyrational, discovery methodical, It is thislattersortof insight self-disciplining framework. interrogatory thathasat least the potentialfor generatingmore sensitivityto the subordination of the prerational andembodied aspectsof humanbeing.... Henceonewayto thinkaboutthcvalueof a modern workof artis in relation to its capacity to keep the rational, reflectiveconsciousnessexposed to what is orwhatis leftout orunassimilated prerational, in anygivenconceptual framework or set of cultural standards.'5
Habermas is ableto relateaesthetics to a politicsof justiceby attaching an aestheticdimensionof life to the projectof a juridicalsubjectivity, thatgrantsit a semiautonomy doingso in a manner andyetincorporates it withinthe largerend of a morerationalsociety. But it is this "use"of aestheticsthat is problematic for post-modern whocanunderstand artists, its deployment as a rhetorical subordination of aestheticsto the imperialism of rationality,and who see the taming andcontainment of aestheticexpressiveness as reflective of the exhaustion of modernism. Post-modern artistsfrom,at least,Duchampto the presenthave explicitlymadetheir projectthat of looseningwhatthey perceiveas beingthe too tight bondsconstraining aestheticexperience to a particular "dimension," by makingtheir creativeacts confrontational of the given, and thus less readily definable as well as less As a consequence of understanding categorizable.16 thedangers inherent
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in the modernorganizationof aestheticexperience,post-modernists maketheirworkoperateso as to opposethe ordering of things,in large the boundaries betweenartfuland otherexperiences. part by blurring of the modernistis subvertedby postThe acute self-consciousness moderngesturesproclaiming art in everything. To Habermas's call for intersubjective clarity,there will be artists who say "no,"perhaps(ironically)in agreementwith the modernist colonizationof art.Butthe"no"of post-modern artistsshouldbe one of a specialvehemence because it a refusal that can seriously is precisely be considered (butnot too seriously) allied with othersubjects political, whose lives are definedby their marginality in dominatingdiscourses such as the one in whichHabermas Thosewho Habermas participates. identifiesas post-moderntheoristscan endorsethe posturesof these artists because they also demonstratethat the establishmentof the universalpragmaticsthat Habermasadvocatesis destructiveof art, operating to reifyart into a resource. One might summarizetheir position in this regardsuccinctly.If is the "first" differance of semiology,if discourse principle is a war,it is subtlyimpositionalto insistupon the furtherpursuitof the conditions that Habermasseeks. Intersubjective clarity, in the politico-cultural situation that expressesitself as the doubling of regimentation and can only performas an especially fragmentation, intensetechnologyof
domination.
17
In the reordered hierarchy of valuesHabermas has recentlyinsisted uponenforcing, suchspecificinstitutions of powerascapitalism become but mereeffectsof instrumental reason.Barriers to the realization of a more robust, complete version of modernity are thus, ironically, underexplained, even as they are "overdetermined"; this confusion, ironically,is a consequencein part of the simple immensityof his communicative project.'8To protectthe emancipatory claims of his theory,Habermas mustalso claimthatit is possibleto containandlimit rationally the powerof instrumental rationality. But,for allthe detailhe presentsin his theoryof reasonand its relationships to rationalization, he does little morethan assertthat instrumental rationality represents but one aspectof modernity.Whenconfrontedwith evidencethat the realmof suchinstrumentality is embedded to a greater or lesserdegree in all aspects of modern life, that in fact, such instrumentalityis constitutive of modernlife, he triesto killthe messenger, accusing those who contemplatethe possibility of moving outside of the realm of 9 Themessage enlightenment of engaging in "totalizing" discourse. that they bear is unsatisfactory to the claims of order, becauseit incites
215
to maintain disruptions of truth. fidelityto the contingency If one understandsinstrumentalrationalityas the form that the impositionof ordertakeson in the modernepisteme,as constitutive of the moderneffortto reformandrefinerelationsof power,one canthen differentiate the variousoppositionalrolesthat a rhetoricof excessivenesscanplayin keeping aliveagainstthedeadhandof agonisticsubjects ordering.Habermas, however,wishesto be understood as a theoristof liberation who, in White'sterms, "wants to avoid the extremes of endorsing eitherblindactionismor ethical-political Butto quietism."20 do so, he himselfengagesin a subtlepolemics.It is of the character of polemicsthat they"proceed encasedin privileges that[they]possessin advance and will never agree to question."21 Habermas's privileged position allows him to accuse others of sharing in the totalizing discoursehe perpetuates. Thusthey arecondemned,on the one hand, for theircritiqueof the epistemethey wish to reject,and, on the other hand,for therejection itself,whichcannotfor Habermas be madejustly. Butjusticeis onlyto be understood in termsconsistent withhis project, as a productof juridicalprocedures. The pathos of Habermas's position may resultfrom the suspicion that he has been outflankedon the left by those whom he calls postmodern.He would recognizethis problemmost directlyin Foucault's politicalpositions:Here is a thinkerwhose work directlyoverlapped with and confrontedhis.22 Yet Habermas,when confrontedwith the uncertainties of a politicsthatrefuses to fit intohiscategories, retreats to the stanceof Kantianmaturity.It is a stancethat can be callednothing morethan liberalidealism.He becomesbut one morebeautifulsoul. Habermas's polemic against poststructuralist thinkersreflectsthe rageof idealismthat Adorno(a teacherhe seemsto havenow rejected) once warnedagainst.23
Idealism... givesunconscious swayto the ideologythat the not-I, I'autrui, and finallyall that reminds us of natureis inferior, so the unityof the self-preserving thought may devourit without misgivings.This justifies the principleof the thoughtas muchas it increases the appetite. Thesystemis the bellyturnedmind, andrageis themarkof eachandeveryidealism.... Theaugustinexorability of the morallaw wasthis kindof rationalized rageat non-identity.
In the samepassageAdornoasserted,
Thesystem,theformof presenting a totalityto whichnothingremains extraneous, absolutizes the thoughtagainsteachof its contentsandevaporates thecontentin thoughts.It proceeds beforeadvancing idealistically, anyarguments for idealism.
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or not Habermas Thereis no usein determining whether is sincerein his concern.In polemicsbaseduponthe rageof idealism,the proofis in the pudding,or in this case, in the speechacts.
FOUCAULTONART It mightbe safeto arguethatthe systematization thatis the hallmark of Habermas's projectshouldbe avoidedif totalizingdiscourse is not to prevailoverthosefictiveentitiescalledmodernindividuals. Butit is not immediately clearwhat"the" alternative to sucha discourse mightbe, or the rolethatpost-modernism, as an aesthetic associated withpoststructuralism,mightplay in an alternative, politicizing discourse. Onemightbegin,thoughbynotingthatpost-modern fragmentations, rejuxtapositions, andsubversions arenot encasable in suchcategorical pairs as coherence/incoherence, becausethey are designedto subvert the pretense that suchdistinctions could be madein nonpolitical ways. As an alternative to makingsuchdistinctions, artists post-modern focus uponthe mostimmediate objectsof lifetheycan.Onewayof statingthis strategyis to recallthe responsegivenby RobertRauschenberg when askedto explainthe purposeunderlying his artworks.He responded by arguingthat the point of his art is to live in the world, ratherthan to
reform it.25
On its face, such a responseis appallingto those who have long acceptedMarx'selevenththesis on Feuerbach, to whit:"Thephilosophershave only interpreted the worldin variousways.The point is to changeit."Post-modernists mightestablisha newthesis,on Marx,but also on all otherfoundational philosophers. "Thephilosophers, andall otherswho haveclaimedto operateas the agentsof power/knowledge, havetransformed the worldin variousways,to makeit unrecognizable, andfortoo manyof us, unlivable. Thepointis notto changetheworldin variousways,but to live in it."Sucha thesisdoes not argueagainstthe possibilityor needfor change.Instead,it suggeststhatchangeis not the point, that too many people who live in "this age of miraclesand wonders" havecometo needa miracle everydayto getby in theworld.26 MartinJay, in his recenthistoryof Marxismandtotality,pointsout that anyphilosophical doctrinethathasachieved hegemony in theWest has alwaysbeenimbuedwith a notion of totality.27 Thisfact mayseem obvious, but it also underlinesthe difficultiesfacing nontotalistic doctrines in vying for position in the discoursesof truth. In fact, opposition to totality has historicallybeen associatedwith eschato-
CONTRAFOUCAULT Dumm / HABERMAS
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himselfwouldhave logicalvisionsof theworldof thesortthatNietzsche through Now, however, the pursuitof protection claimedto be reactive. modern means has broughtWesternsocieties to a peculiarpolitical have varied totality, some post-modernisms threshold.In subverting frompriormodesof oppositionto totalityin thattheyhavenot evokeda past, nor idealizeda future.Instead,theyhaveinsistedon tryingto live they have in the present,and at least in partbecauseof this insistence, (but Whatdoes it meanto takeseriously provokeda greatcontroversy. not too seriously),the claims of the present?It may mean in part to Butthat is a historyof the present."28 engagein the projectof "writing or destructive project.Both areto be neveran exclusivelyconstructive pursuedwith greatvigor, and hencewith greatcaution. in the juridicalcomplexthat FouHabermaslocatesemancipation he does so caultdepictedas beingshot full of domination.Presumably
because the juridical is an arena of clarification, and critical theory must
neverbe caughtin the position of advancing"thethesis that emanciYet what if a realm of emancipationwere not pation mystifies."29 specifically located in a juridical dimension?What if Foucault's argument is morecomplexthana positionof simplerejection-no mere as Whitesuggests? "shadowsubject," If Habermas"uses"aestheticexperiencein a way that perpetuates of a partialreason,thenit may andintensifies thecontinued domination to see Foucault's works be possible how present an alternative some of that allows for liberatoryclaims modernity understanding withoutalso advancing formal-rational andjuridically-based claimsof domination. One first can examine the extent to which Foucault in evaluating himself fromHabermas thepoliticsof consensus. separated with Habermasthat consensusis better Insteadof simplyconcurring than its lack in the establishmentof an ethical politics, Foucault interrogatedthe concept of consensusas a techniqueof power, by the questionof priority: reframing
I wouldsay, rather, at all times:to ask oneself thatit is a criticalideato maintain is impliedin such a powerrelation,and what proportionof nonconsensuality is necessary or not, and then one may whetherthat degreeof nonconsensuality I wouldgo is to saythat questioneverypowerrelationto thatextent.Thefarthest perhaps one must not be for consensuality,but that one must be against
nonconsensuality.30
Foucaultwas reluctant to endorsesucha seemingly of benignprinciple thatthe "other ruleas consensus,partlybecausehe wasconcerned side" heunderstood is domination, butmorecompletely, because of consensus
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THEORY / MAY 1988 POLITICAL
of themultiple to be a partial the notionof consensus and representation contingent relations between politics and ethics that arbitratethe of powerin a given regimeof truth. Foucaultopposed arrangements becauseit rulespeoplewithouttheirconsent.Yet he nonconsensuality also refusedto place consensuality,whetheractual or ideal, beyond of its own criticism,becauseit containsartifice,blursthe contingency If one refuses in the defeat of otherness. truth, and participates the blackmailof beingcompelledto choosebetweenthe two, one can then ironizeconsensusby pointingto its dependence upona largercoercion, even as one opposes nonconsensus basedupon a more explicituse of
force.3'
Foucault attemptedto distinguishhis position from those who professto consensual themeaning solutionsby scrutinizing of consensus againsta backdropof danger.
I am not lookingfor an alternative; in the you can'tfindthesolutionof a problem solutionof another problem raisedat another moment by another people.Yousee, whatI wantto do is notthehistoryof solutions, andthat'sthereasonI don'taccept the wordalternative. I wouldlike to do the genealogy of problems orproblematiques.My point is not that everything is bad, but that everything is dangerous, whichis not exactlythe sameas bad. If everything is dangerous, thanwe always have somethingto do. So my positionleadsnot to apathybut to a hyper-and pessimistic activism.32
If everything is dangerous, then it follows that there can be no privilegingof any aspect of experienceover others in the hope of orderingall experiences.The greaterthe concentration of hope in a particular realm,the moredangerous mattersbecome.33 Therelationship between politicsandaesthetics in thisformulation is articulated,not in terms of utilitarianhedonisms,but in terms of a notionthatin the ancientexperience pleasures, is quitedifferent from modernhedonism.34 The notion of differenttechniquesof care of self that informs Foucault'slate works operatesas an illustrationof the possibility that ways of organizingbodies other than the current, intensely dangerousforms of care of self have existed, but not as potentialsolutionsto the problemsof the modernera. Any movement beyondcurrent problematics mustdisplace the dangerof thepresentset of arrangements, not becausethereneedsto be a continuity of historical development, but because there is an art to life that expresses of changethat arenot rootedin instrumentalities, imperatives but that insteadfloatupontheexcessiveness of multiplepossibilities. A progres-
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sive politics does not operate to "masterthe possibilities,"as the television advertisementfor the banking card urges, but instead establishestactics for dispersingthe dangersof which one becomes cognizantthroughartfulexperiences. Theaccessto suchexperiences for subjects of Westernized societiesin the late modern era is mediatedthrough consumptionrather than production.The importanceof this shift cannot be underestimated. Whateverelse one might claim about Walter Benjamin's enigmatic it is essay,"TheWorkof Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," importantto recognizethat the loss of aura that accompaniesthe mechanical to the breaking of imagesstretches reproduction point the capacityof subjectsto learnfrom the "aesthetic realm" in the manner that Habermas advocates.Benjamin arguedthat"thegreatlyincreased massof participants hasproduced a changein themodeof participation" in art.Buthe wasunclear he also asto whether suchchangeis liberatory; argued,in the same essay, that "the logical result of Fascism is the introductionof aestheticsinto politics."35 In retrospectone can see a of politicsas thehiddentriumph thoroughaestheticization of fascismin contemporarylife, operatingthrough consumptivepractices.If the politicalis already aestheticized thoroughly alongthe linesof consumpto an aesthetic tion, thenrecourse realm,as formulated is by Habermas, futile. Instead,and in accordance with post-modern insight,what is to be subverted,throughthe techniquesof reproduction,is preciselythe fascisticeffectsof the aestheticpenetration of the politicalrendered by the growthof the consumptive realmof experience.36 Benjamin's own doubts concerningthe possibilitiesof art to play such a role did not the Surrealist preventhimfrompraising for whathe termed movement the "transcendent" possibilityinherent in it:
Onlywhenin technology bodyandimageso interpenetrate thatall revolutionary tensionbecomesbodilycollectiveinnervation, and all the bodilyinnervations of the collective becomerevolutionary discharge, hasreality transcended itselfto the
extent demanded by the Communist Manifesto. For the moment, only the
Surrealists haveunderstood its present commands. Theyexchange, to a man,the for the faceof an alarm playof humanfeatures clockthatin eachminuteringsfor sixtyseconds.37
Thedemandof the Manifesto, in thisreading, is to cometo knowwhatis workedthroughand placedupon the body by technologicaladvancement, to recognizean embodiedimaginationas the site of political
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struggle.38 Such recognitionsmight come about throughSurrealism's shockingjuxtapositionsof the ordinaryand exotic (thoughBenjamin, characteristically, of Surrealism pointedto the problematic dimensions as well). They might come about as well, not through the mere effacement of human features in the sands of time, but from the exchangeof thosefeatures fortherushandthrill,theecstasyof makinga face congruent with emergency time. One techniquethat grew out of the Surrealistmovementis what Foucault called "nonaffirmative painting,"in referenceto Magritte. Magrittewas long considered a Surrealist, but he was a Surrealist who exploredthe connections betweenlanguage andexperience in waysthat anticipatedthe employmentof a semiotic understanding of art by It is to a briefanalysisof variousconnections post-modernists. between languageandartthatI turnto conclude thisessay,not by replicating the argument Foucaultmadeconcerning the"Unraveled butby Calligram," it in an analysisof two post-modern emulating works.39 sucha Through gloss, perhapsthe criticalpotentialof post-modern art can be demonstrated.At anyrate,the nonserious natureof philosophy's willat subject least be exposed.
FURNISHINGPOWER The portraitof Napoleonby Jacques-Louis David,Napoleonin His Study(1812),is a paintingof a powerfulmanin his innersanctum. The furniture of power is gathered around Napoleon, protecting him, investing him with a seriousness,a weight, he otherwisewould not projectgivenhis shortness in stature,givenhis Napoleoncomplex.The framing,chairandtable,the verticalpanelsandthe case of the clockin the background, all contributeto the illusionof his height.Napoleon addresses theviewerof the picturestraightforwardly. Hisgazeis steady, his round face inclined only slightly forwardof his body, his body relaxed but attentive,turned toward the viewer, his left shoulder, exaggerated slightlyby the epaulet,makinghis body seemsubstantial, moresubstantial thanit is. The candlebehindhimis burningdown. In the shadowsis the clock:Thetimeis 4:15;perhaps it is the middleof the night, but such is unlikely,for then Napoleon would be in a different position. He clutchesa handkerchief. He holds his stomach,tucked underhis vest. This is the famouspose of the man of power,trulythe first dictator of the bourgeoisie(and not his pretendersuccessor-
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though Napoleon III presentsironies well explored by Marx), surroundedby the artifactsof the bourgeoisie. A man without his clothes is one thing, but a man without his furniture? LarryRivers,in an oil andcollagework,stripsNapoleonof his hisfurniture, turnshisbody,dropshiseyes,avertshisgaze,replicates form as he turnshim and allows the body of Napoleonto fall into its constitutive parts,evenas he remains clothed.If one readsthistext from left to right,the vest, the leg, the hand clutching,the eyes becomeeye becomes thereplicated teardrop-the colorscollapseintoavoid between bodies as the blue of the uniform becomes a green and the green foreground bitsof redcuffreappear disappears, andthe outline blurred, of the clutchinghand,now a disfigurement, suggestsby its positionthe faintestpossibilityof sexualdesire,whileneverarticulating it clearly. This work is entitled The GreatestHomosexual(1964).Begunas a as the hommageto Napoleon,it becomessomethingmore surprising, familiarfigure,in unraveling, uncovershiddensourcesof its power.A hint of the subject's desireis revealed in Napoleon'saverted gaze.Once the viewerfocuses on other than that gaze, what was once simply a in its replication, as a secretcodeof self-identity, tracingis revealed, that is, as an identificationof Napoleonwith himself,a narcissistic desire. Thisdesire,moreover,is genericto the species,bourgeoisdictator;the of the artistDavidis stenciledas DAVID, muchasthe labelof signature a crate,stampedon so to speak.Whatof David? In "TheUnraveledCalligram," FoucaultanalyzedMagritte's complex lesson in ThisIs Not a Pipe.
is solidlyanchored Everything withina pedagogicspace.A painting"shows" a the form of a pipe;a text writtenby a zealousinstructor drawingthat "shows" thata pipeis reallymeant.... Frompainting "shows" to image,fromtextto voice, a sort of imaginary pointerindicates,shows,fixes, locates,imposesa systemof triesto stabilize a uniquespace.40 references,
There can be no meaning in the text that can be considered as of the drawingandvice versa.So the instructor representative stutters, "Ofcourse,this is not a pipe,but a drawingof a pipe."Thereis no fixed text anddrawing, identityconnecting thereis only"theimpossibility of that would let us say that the assertionis true, defininga perspective false, or contradictory."41 The text that claims that Napoleon is the greatesthomosexualis engagedin a similarsubversion.Posed againstthe form that fixes the representationof the historical actor, Napoleon, the icon of that
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Napoleon takes on a multiplicityof meanings as it disintegrates, in a languagethatis excessivein its suggestiveness. becomesimplicated As if to emphasizethis point, Rivers presentsa second study of Napoleon, The Second GreatestHomosexual(1965). The meanings conveyedby the title aremultiple, evenat the levelof the most"literal." This is the secondstudyRiversmakesof Napoleon-Second Greatest, as opposedto First Greatest-there is a furtherdecomposition of the figureof Napoleon,he is diminished, andmadetransparent, a plexiglas ghost of himself-and this work further foreshortensNapoleon, the sizeof thefigurein correspondence withtheshorter reducing vertical length of the work(in comparison with the earlyRiversworkand the David original).This plexiglasNapoleonpossessesa clenchedfist that to genitalia.Infact,thatsectionof thework, bearsa strongresemblance literallyin the middlefor everyoneto see, is the only partof the ghost Napoleon to share color with the decomposingbut still pigmented Napoleon.ThatbothNapoleonsfacein the samedirection is suggestive of theircoupling. There is also a hint of greaterpassivityon Napoleon'spart;he is aboutto be penetrated which by the armof the chair,by the furniture, not to investhimwithpower,butto completehis rapeby his reappears, furniture. David'spaintingreappears in a reverse Themanof hierarchy. poweris penetrated The time is no longer4:15, but by his furniture.42 the sameday,butonecanneverbe certainof time. 2:15,perhaps earlier, Theclockface(isthis aneffacement consistent withBenjamin? Is thisan alarmclock?)appears further to the right,in the approximate positionit occupiedin the first picture,only enlarged.One mightfaintlysee the outlineof a ghostlyfigure,hintedat in shadow,the face of the clock as the face of the figure,andjust as faintlyjoinedto the phallusformedby the armof the chair.Thephallusbelongsto time.Timeerasesthefaceof Napoleon. Time is the rapist/lover,the demon awaitingall. Samuel Beckett's pun is replicated visually-Pricksfor Kicks. Whatdoes one makeof theseworks?I thinkthattheyparticipate in dissolving(solving) a particularproblemof identitythat haunts the exerciseof power.Thelatentdesireunderlying theruleof lawis depicted as a form of representation that takesas its firstprinciple an originary (andprivileged) real.Theproblematique present in anyassertion of such originalityis the dangerthat the post-modern aestheticis designedto counter,in relentless critique. Thatthedistinction betweenoriginaland copy is rendered meaningless in suchworksis frightening for thosewho can perceive of no other way of organizingperceptionother than
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from"thejuridical." throughthe rigorousseparation of "theaesthetic" Buttheremaybe recourse to otherrelationships, of similitude, perhaps, which allow both critique and the formulation of other ways of knowing, ones not so closely tied to the particulardangersresulting fromthe separation of the two. For Napoleonto be recastby Riversas the secondgreatest homosexualis a correction of the highestorder.No one, the absenceof one, or alternatively, extinct being,is the greatest homosexual,a pureformpresentin a worldin whichfurniture existsto the exclusionof humanbeings,a worldmadereadyfor the habitations of thingsbut not of people,a post-neutron bombworld.43 Some would say, a post-Heideggerian world. No one wouldwantto be a homosexual to be thegreatest who aspires homosexual as such. So sexual desire, revealedas a compulsionto power,lifts its hold overthe serious(too serious)penetrating vision of theNapoleon.It allowsfor a plurality of visions,forimprovisation more generally.
CONCLUSION meansmanythingsto manydifferentpeople, and Post-modernism the viewpresented in this essayis perhaps not a responsible one. It may be that the least responsibledefinitionof the post-modern is the now infamousone proposed whowrote,"Simpliby Jean-Francois Lyotard, fying to the extreme, I define post-modern as incredulityto metanarratives."44 But incredulity,as all political theoristsknow, is not of modernity. enoughto inciteoppositionto thevariousmetanarratives Fortunately,for those who would otherwisebe compelledto pay the blackmailof modernity,more is at work in the criticaloperationsof post-modernarts than mere incredulity.Despite the fact that many to theconcerns artistsare,at best,indifferent post-modern ofjusticeand of a peculiar power,45 despitethe fact that this essayitselfhas partaken elitism (unlike, e.g., a richly specificwork on photographyrecently the post-modernarts cannot be completed by Michael Shapiro),46 characterized asconservative in thrust,onceassumptions different than those offeredbydefenders of modernity arereplaced suchas Habermas with less utopian and, hence, less intenselydangerous,assumptions, concerning the messiness of life, the impossibility of transparent communication(and yes, the celebration of that impossibility as
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liberatingin its implications),and the possibilitiesthat alwaysinhere withinlanguage. Onehasneverbegunnorfinishedwhatonehasto say.To understand the implicationsof that claim is to know how freedomis constantly, potentiallypresentin humanenterprise, despiteall attempts to orderit out of existence.Perhapsmoreimportant, to engagethe post-modern artsmaybe to participate in the alwaysskepticalbut alwaysaffirmative projectof makingthe potentialmomentof freedomactual;to oppose nonconsensuality, but also to criticizeconsensus.Such is the kind of freedom made available to late modern subjects by the political aestheticsof post-modern arts.
NOTES
1. See TheodorN. Adorno,Negative trans.by E. B. Ashton(NewYork: Dialectics, Seabury 31-32.Ontheambiguous Press,1979), of Adorno to current relationship streams of poststructuralist thought,see JonathanArac, ed., Postmodernism and Politics in and Historyof Literature Theory MN: University of Minnesota (vol. 28) (Minneapolis, Press, 1986);generally, and especially,the essay by RainerNagele,"TheScene of the TheodorN. Adorno's Other: NegativeDialecticin the Contextof Poststructuralism." 2. MichelFoucault,Death and the Labyrinth: The Worldof RaymondRoussel, trans.by Charles Ruas(Garden City,NY: Doubleday,1986),16. 3. Thereis a critique of Kantian aesthetics thatis baseduponits fearful nature. This is adumbrated fearfulness in the laterworksof Nietzsche. I havefoundits mostexplicit and compellingarticulation in AlphonsoLingis,Excesses: Eros and Culture (Albany: SUNY Press,1983). 4. Adorno,NegativeDialectics,14. 5. I referhere specifically to the followingpassage:"It is just as if prohibitions, barriers, thresholds andlimitshadbeenset up in order to master, at leastpartly,thegreat proliferation of discourse, in orderto removefromits richness its mostdangerous part, and in orderto organizeits disorderaccording to figureswhich dodge what is most uncontrollable aboutit"(MichelFoucault,"TheOrder of Discourse," in Language and Politics,ed. by MichaelShapiro[NewYork:NYU Press,1984],125-126). 6. Thetermpost-modern is usuallyrendered withoutthe hyphen. I prefer usingthe hyphen it reminds because meof theaporias of modernity thatareunlikely to beovercome througha mereassertion, in language, thatthe modern agehasended.Unlikethosewho thinkthataporiasindicatea bankruptcy in a theory,though,I tendto thinkthatthebest theories must disclose aporias. Michael Budd has developeda rule of thumb for understanding in relation post-modernism to modernism thatis applicable to a variety of aesthetic forms.Hesuggests thatpost-modernism is theresponse to thepopularization of onethatinheres modernism, in anironicappreciation of thesubversions of themodernists while appreciating their disabilitythroughthe success of the proliferationof their fragmentations, unities,andjuxtapositions.
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7. He hassincecompleted his muchlarger workon thetopic.SeeJurgen Habermas, Der Philosophische Discoursder Moderne(Frankfurt: Surkamp, 1985). 8. See Jurgen Habermas"Modernity-An IncompleteProject,"in The AntiAesthetic:EssaysOn PostmodernCulture, ed. Hal Foster,(Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press,1984). Thisessaywasoriginally as a speech of presented uponHabermas's reception theAdornoPrize,givenbythecityof Frankfurt. of thisessaylaterappeared A translation in New German Critique22, (Winter 1981), under the title, "ModernityVersus Postmodernity." 9. Habermas, New German 14.Thispassagehas beenthe sourceof some Critique, controversy, sinceit makessuchstrongclaimsaboutthe politicalimportof the worksof Derrida and Foucault. Nancy Fraser has articulatedmany of the themes of this in a review controversy in Ethics,Fall essay,"Michel Foucault-'YoungConservative?"' 1985. 10. Themostobviousexampleof thisdesireis Habermas's most recent,andperhaps ambitious, work,TheTheory of Communicative Action,ReasonandtheRationalization of Society(vol.1)(Boston:BeaconPress,1984).Forme, a muchmoretellingcaseis to be found in Habermas's of a hopefulexampleconcerning presentation workersand their creationof art in the Germanyof the 1930s,an art that, for him, is indicativeof a "reappropriation of theexpert's culture fromthestandpoint of thelife-world"; anexample that pointsto a possiblereception of artin the modern worldas an illumination of that the subjects world,preparing for theiremancipation or at leastencouraging them. 11. StephenWhite,"Foucault's Challenge to CriticalTheory," AmericanPolitical ScienceReview80, no. 2 (June1986). 12. White,"Challenge," 425. 13. White,"Challenge," 425. "In short, Habermas is arguingthat the resources of cultural areadequate forilluminating modernity thepathologies andunlearning thathave accompanied modernization.... Theupshotof thisline of thoughtis thatthe critique of modern society can be adequatelypursuedwithin the parameters of modernconsciousness." 14. White,"Challenge," 427. 15. White,"Challenge," 427. 16. I amquiteaware thatDuchamp is notlabeled a post-modern artist in thecanonsof arthistory.I wouldsuggest, however, thatfromthemoment hesigneda urinal,at least,he had begunto shapepost-modern sensibilities. 17. Hencecomesa response to a question Whiteraises: "Does[Habermas's] approach to subjectivity, whichemphasizes juridical aspects, offeranylinkto aesthetic subjectivity?" (White, "Challenge," 424). Any answerthat does not questionthe questionitself is it wouldfailto pointout the presupposition negligent; thatjuridicality andaesthetics are necessarily as differing constituted realms of subjective experience. Forpoststructuralists, as wellas for post-modern artists,thetwo arenot readily distinguishableperceptually, to say nothingof the largerontologicalburdenHabermas placesupon the distinction (a distinction that,as anygood Kantian knows,flowsfromthatperception to beginwith).A basiccontentionof this essayis that,in largepart,the current crisisresultsfromthe fact that the two realmsarenow inseparable. 18. The underexplained elementsof modernity are precisely what are neglectedin Habermas's characterization of the "colonization of the life-world," as presented in The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 1. (See White on Habermas's"two-level
226
interpretation of modernity," 422.) In fact, Habermas is far too willingthroughout his work to attendto theoretical minutiaeto the eventualdramatic exclusionof a sensible analysisof practices. Thiscomplaint in the (thoughformeit is mostcommonly grounded frustrating boredomHabermas is no merestylisticquibble.An attendance stimulates) to an explanation of the detailsof practice is crucialas a difference between and Habermas Foucault.Habermas's liberatory claims,madein thecontextof a moregeneral of critique modernity,are so arid as to rendercomplaintsabout the supposed"extraordinary dryness" of Foucault's workin comparison ridiculous. see Richard (For the complaint, Rorty's andLyotard on Postmodernity," essay,"Habermas in Habermas andModernity, ed. by RichardBemstein(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985).Rorty objectsto Foucault's distancefromthe subject, achieved by his resistance to thetemptation to usetheimperial we in his work,a resistance Rortyseemsto haveovercome; see 171-172.) 19. Theaccusation of totalization is a strange one,giventhattheconceptof totalityis onethatis withintheMarxist tradition. Myguessis thatthecriticism is designed to reduce to silencethose who point up the unpleasant (and totalizing)tendencies of discourses, especiallythose that have emancipatory intent. Fraser,in "MichelFoucault-'Young Conservative?"' provides just such a critiqueof Habermas. LikeNietzsche,the French areaccusedof celebrating poststructuralists for the veryact of diagnosing nihilism it. 20. White,"Challenge," 430. 21. See Foucault,"Polemics,Politics, and Problematizations," in The Foucault Reader,ed. by Paul Rabinow(NewYork:PantheonBooks, 1984),382. 22. For a sympathetic of Habermas reading versusFoucaulton modernity, see Peter Hohendahl,"Habermas' Philosophical Discourseon Modernity," Telos69 (Fall 1986). Habermas's fullcritique of FoucaultandtheotherFrench poststructuralists canbe found in Der philosophische Discoursder Moderne. Translated fragments of that work have appeared,including"The GenealogicalWriting of History:On Some Aporias in Foucault's Theoryof Power," trans.by Gregory Ostander, Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory10.Tworecentdefensesof Foucault's politicsareTom Keenan, "The 'Paradox'of Knowledge and Power:ReadingFoucaulton a Bias,"and Alexander E. Hooke, "TheOrderof Others:Is Foucault's Antihumanism AgainstHumanAction?" both in PoliticalTheory15,no.1 (February 1987). 23. Hohendahl, "Discourse on Modernity," 64. 24. Adorno,NegativeDialectics, 22-24. 25. As cited in Calvin Tompkins, The Bride and the Bachelors:The Heretical in ModernArt (New York:VikingPress,1965),227. Courtship 26. The quotation is from a song by Paul Simon, "Boy in the Bubble,"from Graceland, 1986,Warner BrothersRecords.KathyFergusonarguedwith me over the politicsof livingin the world,thusevokingfor me the comparison to Marx. 27. Martin Jay, Marxism and Totality: TheAdventures of a Conceptftom Lukacs to Habermas (Berkeley: of California University Press,1984),chap. 1. 28. Foucault,Discipline and Punish(NewYork:PantheonPress,1977),31. 29. White,"Challenge," 421. 30. Foucault,"Politics andEthics," in TheFoucaultReader,379. 31. WilliamConnollyemphasizedto me the importanceof clarifyingFoucault's of consensus critique in hiscomments on a draftof thisessay,usingprecisely theterms that appearhere. 32. Foucault,"Onthe Genealogy of Ethics," in TheFoucaultReader,343. 33. I have writtenin moredetail of the politicsof dangerous relationships. See the
Dumm l HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT
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andconclusion introduction to Democracy andPunishment: Disciplinary Origins of the UnitedStates(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,1987). 34. A famouscontemporary elaboration upon modernhedonismis to be found in HannahArendt,TheHumanCondition (Chicago: of ChicagoPress1958). University 35. SeeIlluminations, editedandwithanintroduction NewYork: by Hannah Arendt, SchockenBooks, 1969),239, 241. 36. The most thoroughanalysisof the relationship of post-modern cultureto late is to be foundin Fredric capitalism Jameson's essay,"Post-Modernism, or the Cultural Logicof LateCapitalism,"in NewLeftReview146,July-August 1984. Jameson's effortto a Marxist reconcile visionof liberation withthecultural logicof latecapitalism leadshim to discussideassuchas "cognitive for theirpotential mapping," liberatory potential.His efforthas aroused somecontroversy in literary circles,mainlyconcerning whatthe limits of contemporary Marxismmight be in regardto understanding and puttingto use post-modern cultural insights. 37. "Surrealism," in One-WayStreet, trans. by EdmundJephscottand Kingsley Shorter (London: New Left ReviewBooks, 1979),239. 38. For an appropriately bizarre, and very compelling,argumentin favor of thebodyas thesiteof struggle, abandoning in favorof embracing a cybernetic perspective on the politicsof biopower, see Donna Haraway, "Manifesto for Cyborgs," in Socialist Review15, no. 2. 39. See Foucault,ThisIs Not a Pipe,trans.by JamesHarkness (Berkeley: University of California Inthefollowing Press,1982). thepaintings I describe analysis areto befound in platereproductions in Sam Hunter,LarryRivers,ModernArtistSeries(New York: HarryN. Abrams). 40. Foucault,ThisIs Not a Pipe,29-30. 41. Foucault,ThisIs Not a Pipe,20. 42. The functionof furniture in the bourgeois imagination was first systematically writtenabout by EdgarAllen Poe. It has been noted by variouscriticsthat thereis a lineagefromPoe to Baudelaire to Benjamin, simplyin termsof successive translations. Perhapssomedaysomeonewill write of how they acted, not as translators,but as torchbearers of thatmost impossible torch,the modernimagination. 43. Keenan, "The 'Paradox'of Knowledge andPower,"21-23. Keenan pointsoutthat Foucault's politicalinterventions areestablished simplybecausethey arecommissioned by no one. Thecomplicated, necessary politicalstrategies require not on some standing, generalgroundof right,but on the moreghostlyassertion of rightout of a senseof the paradoxof rights.I use "noone"in whatI believeto be a relatedsensehere. 44. See ThePostmodern Condition: A Reporton Knowledge, andHistoryof Theory Literature (vol. 10), trans. by Geoff Benningtonand Brian Massumi(Minneapolis: of Minnesota University Press,1984),xxiv. 45. I immediately thinkof the late AndyWarhol,closefriendof the late Roy Cohn, who, alongwiththe still-present architect post-modern PhilipJohnson,eagerlycharacterizedhimselfas a prostitute, andwhomFoucaultoncepraised for his "stupidity." See "Theatrum in Language, philosophicum," Counter-Memory, ed. by DonaldF. Practice, Bouchard(Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress), 1977, 189. A more generaldangeris to become aboutpower.If onerelies cynical uponpost-modernism forjudgments concerning to whatI seekto cautionagainst, politics,one submits thatis, participating in thefascism of thepresent. Thepurpose hereis to showhowliberatory potential inheres in theseworks, not to praiseor condemnany artistfor his or herspecificpoliticalviews.
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46. See"ThePoliticalRhetoric of Photography"(Paper delivered atthe82ndAnnual Meetingof the American PoliticalScienceAssociation, Washington, D.C., August1986. This essay is part of a forthcomingwork by Michael Shapiro, The Politics of Representation (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
L Dummteaches Thomas American politicsat AmherstCollege. He is theauthor of Democracy and Punishment:DisciplinaryOrigins of the United States (Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1987). He is currentlyworkingon a study of practicesof representation.

On The Politics of Aesthetics and Postmodernism

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On The Politics of Aesthetics and Postmodernism

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The Politics of Post-Modern Aesthetics: Habermas Contra Foucault Author(s): Thomas L. Dumm Source: Political Theory, Vol.

THE TRIALOF POSTMODERNISM

II. THE POLITICS OF POST-MODERN AESTHETICS Habermas Contra Foucault

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

CONTRAFOUCAULT Dumm / HABERMAS

THEORY / MAY 1988 POLITICAL

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm / HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

Dumm l HABERMAS CONTRAFOUCAULT

POLITICAL THEORY / MAY 1988

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