(University of the Free State, 2006) Van den Berg, Cilliers
English: With an interest in issues relating to the role of literature in the socio-political context,
Hans Magnus Enzensberger uses the Bewußtseins-Industrie in many of his texts as an
analytical construct to describe the way in which society functions. This becomes evident
particularly in essays in which he deals directly with social aspects. In both his poetics
and his creative work this problematic issue is often present too. The purpose of this essay
is to trace succinctly the roots of Enzensberger’s Bewußtseins-Industrie to some aspects
of the Kulturindustrie of Theodor W Adorno, and then to describe the key position which
this notion occupies in his essayistic oeuvre.