Auschwitz - Adorno und Nono

Analyzes Adorno's view that art after Auschwitz is at one and the same time both prohibited ("barbaric") and necessary, even obligatory; all art is located at the center of this paradox. Draws a distinction between the factual "reality" of the Holocaust and the experienced "actuality" ("Wirklichkeit"). Contends that art transmits the latter by mimesis and narration. Whereas Adorno rejects "engagement" of the artist and sees the message in the work of art alone, the Italian composer Luigi Nono strikes a balance between his political engagement and the autonomy of his work. Describes and analyzes his Auschwitz compositions, all of them syntheses of music and narrative texts. Suggests that perhaps only art can keep alive the memory of the actuality of Auschwitz. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)