Adorno: A Critical Reader

Adorno: A Critical Reader presents a collection of newessays by many of the world′s top critics, who examine Adorno′slasting impact on the arts, politics, history, philosophy,psychoanalysis, and sociology.

Few intellectuals captured as much critical attention in thelate twentieth century as Theodor W. Adorno. A growing number ofhis writings, lectures, and addresses have recently becomeavailable in English, a development that has inspired areassessment of his oeuvre and placed Adorno at the center ofdebates about the role and responsibilities of theintellectual.

Readers interested in the origins of cultural studies andcritical theory will find this book an important examination of thebroad work of one of the major intellectuals of the twentiethcentury. Those interested in the arts, politics, history,philosophy, psychoanalysis, and sociology will delight in thisimportant collection of essays that re–evaluate Adorno′s work inthe context of the many fields that his writings have shapedirreversibly.

Contributors.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: Adorno and the Autonomous Intellectual: NigelGibson and Andrew Rubin (both Columbia University).

Part I: Politics and Culture:.

1. Adorno in Reverse: From Hollywood to Richard Wagner: AndreasHuyssen (Columbia University).

2. Mass Culture as Hieroglyphic Writing: Adorno, Derrida,Kracauer: Miriam Hansen (University of Chicago).

3. Theodor W. Adorno and the Dialectics of Mass Culture: DouglasKellner (University of California, Los Angeles).

4. Adorno′s Politics: Russell Berman (Stanford University).

5. "Why were the Jews Sacrificed?": The Place of Antisemitism inAdorno and Horkheimer′s Dialectic of Enlightenment: AnsonRabinbach (Princeton University).

6. Demythologizing the Authoritarian Personality: ReconnoiteringAdorno′s Retreat from Marx: Lou Turner (North Central College,Illinois).

7. The Adorno Files: Andrew Rubin (Columbia University).

Part II: Aesthetics:.

8. Adorno as Lateness Itself: Edward W. Said (ColumbiaUniversity).

9. Immanent Critique, or Musical Stocktaking? Adorno and theProblem of Musical Analysis: Max Paddison (University ofDurham).

10. Adorno and the New Musicology: Rose Rosengard Subotnik(Brown University).

Part III: Critical Theory and After:.

11. Rethinking an Old Saw: Dialectical Negativity, Utopia, andNegative Dialectic in Adorno′s Hegelian Marxism: NigelGibson (Columbia University).

12. Hegel on Trial: Adorno′s Critique of Philosophical Systems:Mauro Bozzetti (University of Urbino, Italy).

13. The Dialectic of Theory and Praxis: On Late Adorno: Henry W.Pickford.

14. Radical Art: Reflections after Adorno and Heidegger:Krzysztof Ziarek (University of Notre Dame).

15. Queerly Amiss: Sexuality and the Logic of Adorno′sDialectics: Jennifer Rycenga (San José State University).

16. "As though the end of the world had come and gone" orAllemal ist nicht immergleich Critical Theory andthe Task of Reading: Samuel Weber (University of California, LosAngeles).

Bibliography.

Index.

Nigel Gibson is Visiting Assistant Professor at theInstitute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at EmersonCollege in Boston, where he teaches philosophy and postcolonialstudies. He is also a research associate at Harvard University andat Brown University. He is editor of Rethinking Fanon (1999)and co–editor, with George C. Bond, of Contested Terrain andContested Categories: Africa in Focus (2001).

Andrew Rubin is currently a doctoral candidate in theDepartment of English and Comparative Literature at ColumbiaUniversity. He is editor of The Edward Said Reader (2000),and has written articles for a variety of national magazines andnewspapers, including The Nation.

"There is a kind of poetic justice in the fact that Adorno is thegreat survivor of the Frankfurt School, the only one whose thoughtretained its full actuality. However, the same thing he said forpsychoanalysis that its truth resides in its veryexaggerations goes for his own thought: he is at his mostsubversive when he gets involved in a deadlock. For this reason,this critical reader, focused on these deadlocks, is not just acommentary on his thought, but literally part of it. Inshort, this book is simply a must!" Slavoj Zizek,Kulturwissenschaftliches Institute, Essen <!––end––>

"Against all odds, Adorno has emerged at the dawn of thetwenty–first century as arguably the leading theoreticalinspiration of our time. These stimulating essays, written by freshas well as familiar commentators on his oeuvre, go a long waytowards explaining the power of his ideas and demonstrating theirabiding relevance." Martin Jay, University of California,Berkeley