Adorno sees disinterestedness as a necessary stage in the development of aesthetic experience, but says that it has to be transcended by a recognition of the “interest inherent in disinterestedness.”
Disinterestedness applies only to certain kinds of works, he says.  Try reading Kafka and remaining in disinterested contemplation: Kafka’s novels “call forth in us responses like real anxiety, a violent drawing back, an almost physical revulsion.  They seem to be the opposite of desire.  Yet these phenomena of psychic defence and rejection have more in common with desire than with the old Kantian disinterestednes.”  In short, “Kafka and the literature that followed his example have swept away the notion of disinterestedness.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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