Negativity (Dis)embodied: Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Theodor W. Adorno on Mimesis

This article discusses the relationship between two philosophies of the twentieth century: those of Theodor W. Adorno and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. Both authors emphasize the notion of mimesis and see it as an ontological and an epistemological category and as the site of the nonidentical and negative, which turns against itself in the identitarian machine of Western rationality and, more generally, in the immanent religions of fascination. The divergence between the authors, who belong to different intellectual schools (Frankfurt School and deconstruction, respectively), concerns the possibility to embody or express the negativity of mimesis. Adorno believes in the material expression of negativity in art, while Lacoue-Labarthe deems it impossible.