The social significance of non-autonomous culture: Beyond creativity

This article addresses the social significance of non-autonomous culture. It seeks to derive a principle of critique from an engagement with cultural works that have never been and can never become autonomous, arguing that this type of works penetrate reality in ways that reveal cultural dynamics that are normally hidden in a society that has succumbed to the mirage of creativity. First, the process of dedifferentiation that has led from a critical consideration of the culture industry and of the cultural contradictions of capitalism to the newly hegemonic language of creativity is examined. After this, a different approach to non-autonomous culture is developed through an analysis of modern cultural practices like photography, as well as pre-modern ones like craft. The final section discusses the task of the translator, an age-old process of cultural mediation and encounter which, although often misunderstood or ignored, is ubiquitous in our highly interconnected societies.