The social address of art

Question

1. Does "the social address of art" mean "the relationship of art with society" or "seeing art as a social phenomenon"?

2. Does "it" refer to "art"?

3. Does "a yield of" mean "some amount of"?

4. Does "in their working through" mean "in dealing with these painful experiences"?

Sentence:

For Freud, the social address of art means that it is on the side of the pleasure principle, as even when it presents painful experiences there is a yield of pleasure in their working through.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

catttt1. Does "the social address of art" mean "the relationship of art with society" or "seeing art as a social phenomenon"?

That is jargon. It is a mistake to read this book without first being thoroughly grounded in Freud.

catttt2. Does "it" refer to "art"?

Probably, but then again I don't know what a "social address" is. This writer does this a lot. You can't bury your antecedent in a prepositional phrase and then expect the reader to go digging for it.

catttt3. Does "a yield of" mean "some amount of"?

In a way. We speak of the yield of a farm in bushels per acre, say. It is that sort of yield, some amount produced.

catttt4. Does "in their working through" mean "in dealing with these painful experiences"?

Yes.

The social address of art

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