Broch's Kitsch Lecture: A Confession of Aesthetic Failure
Jean-Yves Jouannais revisits Hermann Broch's 1951 Yale lecture on kitsch, published posthumously. Broch argues kitsch originates from Romanticism, not industrial society, and shares with academicism a closure of art around Platonic whims. He famously declares: "Kitsch is evil in the value system of art." Jouannais reveals the lecture as a personal confession: Broch's own novel trilogy *The Sleepwalkers*, influenced by Joyce, suffers from a demonstrative lyricism that contradicts his aesthetic theory. Broch also links kitsch to Nazism, noting Hitler was "an absolute partisan of kitsch" who found bloody kitsch and wedding-cake kitsch equally "beautiful." The lecture thus becomes a political condemnation of kitsch, reflecting Broch's broken life under Nazi rule.
Key facts
- Hermann Broch delivered a lecture on kitsch at Yale in 1951, months before his death.
- Broch argues kitsch is a product of Romanticism, not industrial society.
- He states: 'Kitsch is evil in the value system of art.'
- Broch's own novel trilogy *The Sleepwalkers* exhibits kitsch tendencies despite Joyce's influence.
- Broch links kitsch to Nazism, citing Hitler as an 'absolute partisan of kitsch.'
- The lecture serves as a political condemnation of kitsch.
- Jean-Yves Jouannais wrote the article in artpress.
- The article was published in December 2001.
Entities
Artists
- Hermann Broch
- Jean-Yves Jouannais
- James Joyce
- Adolf Hitler
Institutions
- Yale University
- artpress
Locations
- New Haven
- United States
Sources
- artpress —