The Play of 'Helldunkel' and the Experience of Polyphony *

Multiplicity Between and Beyond the Senses

Abstract

The author uses the metaphor of Helldunkel (chiaroscuro) to follow Adorno’s path from seeing together to hearing together in his examination of polyphony and counterpoint. Taking a detour via Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling’s philosophy of art and Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical theory of the polyphonic novel, Shira Miron returns to Adorno’s guiding idea and attempts to throw a new light on it. Contrasting Adorno, Schelling, and Bakhtin provides the basis for further thoughts about visualizing a multiplicity of voices and polyphony, as well as the rhetorical function of the Helldunkel metaphor.