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Archives of Critical Theory

Andrew N. Rubin

in Archives of Authority: Empire, Culture, and the Cold War

This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which ... More

This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which had damaged the very category of experience in general. Positivism and empiricism had reduced reality to a prosaic and administered calculus, the effect of which was embodied in the position of the exile when confronted with modernity. Moreover, as Adorno writes, “It is unmistakably clear to the intellectual from abroad that he will have to eradicate himself as an autonomous being if he hopes to achieve anything.” In postwar Germany, his critique of positivism would face new, mostly institutional challenges.Less

Eisler in America: The Film Music Project and Composing for the Films

Sally Bick

in Unsettled Scores: Politics, Hollywood, and the Film Music of Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler

Eisler’s writings on Hollywood film music are interpreted from three different vantages: initially from afar as a committed Marxist in Europe; later as an émigré in New York at the New School for ... More

Eisler’s writings on Hollywood film music are interpreted from three different vantages: initially from afar as a committed Marxist in Europe; later as an émigré in New York at the New School for Social Research supported by the Rockefeller Foundation on a study about film music; and finally as a film composer working in Hollywood. The discussion traces this intellectual progression, which eventually culminates in Composing for the Films, a politically controversial and infamous book written in collaboration with Theodor Adorno. The discussion interprets the book and its political ideology and treats the thorny question of authorship, the various editions, and the book’s publication history, as well as Adorno’s problematic role in the creation of the work.Less

The Elusiveness of the Particular: Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor Adorno

Seyla Benhabib

in Exile, Statelessness, and Migration

This chapter examines the subterranean affinities between Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, two of the most famous exiles of the last century, through the so-called “Benjaminian moment” present in ... More

This chapter examines the subterranean affinities between Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, two of the most famous exiles of the last century, through the so-called “Benjaminian moment” present in their work. It is widely known that any consideration of Arendt and Adorno as thinkers who share intellectual affinities is likely to be thwarted by the profound dislike that Arendt seems to harbor toward Adorno. However, such psychological attitudes and personal animosities cannot guide the evaluations of a thinker's work. This is particularly true in the case of Arendt and Adorno, who both shared a profound sense that one must learn to think anew, beyond the traditional schools of philosophy and methodology—a concept that will be referred to as their Benjaminian moment.Less

The Promise of Broadcast Classical Music

David Goodman

in Radio's Civic Ambition: American Broadcasting and Democracy in the 1930s

The chapter explores why there was so much classical music on mainstream 1930s American radio, and the meanings and values that broadcast classical music represented. Radio's engagement with ... More

The chapter explores why there was so much classical music on mainstream 1930s American radio, and the meanings and values that broadcast classical music represented. Radio's engagement with classical music emphasized the added effort needed to turn listening into music appreciation. Local performers, amateurs talking about their musical hobby, broadcast music lessons, composition competitions and play-along programs, all demonstrated why broadcast classical music was so important a part of the civic paradigm. NBC's hiring of Arturo Toscanini to conduct its new NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938 exemplified mainstream commercial radio's well-publicized commitment to, and sacralization of, classical music. The US radio networks' high valuing of classical music led them to foster close relationships with European and especially German broadcasters well into the fascist era. The strictures of émigré German intellectual Theodor Adorno about broadcast classical music show that he was acutely aware of classical music's strategic importance to American broadcasters.Less

The Foreign in the Mother Tongue: Words of Foreign Derivation and Utopia in Theodor W. Adorno

Yeasemin Yildiz

in Beyond the Mother Tongue: The Postmonolingual Condition

This chapter discusses words of foreign derivation (Fremdwörter) as constituting a form of “internal multilingualism,” which writers can potentially mobilize against the monolingual paradigm. It ... More

This chapter discusses words of foreign derivation (Fremdwörter) as constituting a form of “internal multilingualism,” which writers can potentially mobilize against the monolingual paradigm. It details the highly charged discourse on these words from the Early Modern period to the present, showing how the changing attributes of Fremdwörter and the general shape of language purism relate to particular political and cultural constellations. At the center of the chapter are Theodor W. Adorno's writings on Fremdwörter, from the early essay “On the Use of Foreign Derived Words,” and passages in Minima Moralia—where he calls them “the Jews of language”—to his 1959 essay “Words from Abroad.” The analysis charts the changes in Adorno's defense of these words and shows how he redefines his understanding of the (post-Holocaust) German language in the process, contrasting it with Martin Heidegger's. By investigating both Adorno's statements about Fremdwörter and his use of them in his writing, the chapter demonstrates how the interplay between “native” and “foreign-derived” words is part of his dialectical mode of writing.Less

Aesthetic Theories and Revolutionary Practice: Nikolaus A. Huber and Clytus Gottwald in Dissent

Beate Kutschke

in Sound Commitments: Avant-Garde Music and the Sixties

The West‐German avant‐garde music scene of the early 1970s—the period in which the spirit of the New Left manifested itself most intensively in the musical field—was especially marked by the numerous ... More

The West‐German avant‐garde music scene of the early 1970s—the period in which the spirit of the New Left manifested itself most intensively in the musical field—was especially marked by the numerous discussions and debates about the nature of political music, its perfection and failures, conducted by musicians and music writers with endless energy and engagement. This chapter throws light on one of these debates: the argument between Nikolaus A. Huber and Clytus Gottwald in 1971–72 about Huber's composition Harakiri. It investigates the terms of the debate, firstly with regard to the musical facts—and in particular a comparison made at the time between Huber's Harakiri and Hans Otte's contemporary piece, Zero—and secondly with regard to the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno, who provided the New Leftist avant‐gardists with politico‐aesthetical ideas.Less

The Psyche in Late Capitalism I: Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and the Crisis of Internalization

Benjamin Y. Fong

in Death and Mastery: Psychoanalytic Drive Theory and the Subject of Late Capitalism

Employs the drive theory developed in the first three chapters toward a reinterpretation of the culture industry thesis of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

Theodor Adorno

Tyrus Miller

in Modernism and the Frankfurt School

After a general survey of Adorno’s wide-ranging and voluminous work, this chapter focuses on Adorno’s strongly-formulated defense of critical modernism against culture industry, especially in music, ... More

After a general survey of Adorno’s wide-ranging and voluminous work, this chapter focuses on Adorno’s strongly-formulated defense of critical modernism against culture industry, especially in music, but also in literature and other arts. Close attention is given to Adorno’s writings on Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, and post-WWII “New Music.”Less

Images of the Bilderverbot: Adorno, Antisemitism, and the Enemies of Modernism

Neil Levi

in Modernist Form and the Myth of Jewification

This chapter examines a central motif in Frankfurt School theorist Theodor W. Adorno's postwar, post-Holocaust modernism: his commitment to the biblical Second Commandment's prohibition of images. ... More

This chapter examines a central motif in Frankfurt School theorist Theodor W. Adorno's postwar, post-Holocaust modernism: his commitment to the biblical Second Commandment's prohibition of images. Against the received idea that Adorno's commitment to the prohibition represents his identification with some kind of Jewish identity, it is argued that Adorno invokes the prohibition precisely to prevent such identitarian thinking. The prohibition might connect the Jews and modernism, but it neither makes modernism Jewish nor Jews modernists. What it does clearly make them, in Adorno's eyes, is subject to unintended, unwanted, but predictable forms of projection and misinterpretation. Where much of French postwar thought wants simply to reverse the valences and fantasies of the recent past, Adorno's reflections on the projective reaction to the Second Commandment show that he seeks instead, via an inoculatory repetition of those valences and fantasies, to confront and work through them.Less

Theodor W. Adorno: Aporetics

Robyn Marasco

in The Highway of Despair: Critical Theory After Hegel

This chapter argues that Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy about despair has been poorly understood by his critics, one of them being Jürgen Habermas. He argued that Adorno betrayed the “rational ... More

This chapter argues that Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy about despair has been poorly understood by his critics, one of them being Jürgen Habermas. He argued that Adorno betrayed the “rational content of cultural modernity” to an unyielding logic of domination, resulting in a critique of Enlightenment without “any dynamism upon which critique could base its hope.” For Habermas, despair should be considered as the philosophical problem that originated in a bad philosophy (which starts with Nietzsche) that was resolved with good philosophy (which starts with Kant). However, in expressing this notion, Habermas treated critical philosophy as a rescue operation. This treatment may cause the objective history of despair to fall into obscurity, and may compel the passions to give way to the primacy of communicative reason.Less

A Curious Legacy: Ernst Bloch’s Enlightened View of the Fairy Tale and Utopian Longing, or Why the Grimms’ Tales Will Always Be Relevant

Jack Zipes

in Grimm Legacies: The Magic Spell of the Grimms' Folk and Fairy Tales

This concluding chapter examines the explorations of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), the great philosopher of hope, and Theodor Adorno (1903–69), the foremost critical thinker of the Frankfurt School, ... More

This concluding chapter examines the explorations of Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), the great philosopher of hope, and Theodor Adorno (1903–69), the foremost critical thinker of the Frankfurt School, concerning the profound ramifications of the fairy tale. In doing so they made a significant contribution to the Grimms' cultural legacy. The chapter reveals that, not long after Bloch escaped the dystopian realm of East Germany in 1961, he held a radio discussion with Adorno about the contradictions of utopian longing. Both displayed an unusual interest in fairy tales and were very familiar with the Grimms' tales, which they considered to be utopian.Less

Adorno's Lesson Plans? The Ethics of (Re)education in “The Meaning of ‘Working through the Past’” 

Jaimey Fisher

in Language Without Soil: Adorno and Late Philosophical Modernity

This chapter refutes the long-standing prejudice that Theodor W. Adorno offered no concrete suggestions capable of bridging theory and praxis by scrutinizing the philosopher's ... More

This chapter refutes the long-standing prejudice that Theodor W. Adorno offered no concrete suggestions capable of bridging theory and praxis by scrutinizing the philosopher's contributions to Germany's educational reforms following World War II. The last lines of the introduction that Adorno added to “The Meaning of ‘Working through the Past’” when he gave the lecture again in 1962 suggest, like the original questions and answers to the lecture, that his mind was very much on the ethics suggested by his lecture, on the norms and praxis it unfolded, even if skeptically. As Adorno's best-known work about education, “Education after Auschwitz” commences with the conceptual groundwork laid in “Working through the Past”, not so much by merely beginning where the latter essay leaves off, but—as “Working through the Past” did with “Democratization”–by extracting specific elements from it and subsequently elaborating them in revealingly different directions.Less

Introduction: California Haunting: Mann, Schoenberg, Faustus

Adrian Daub

in The Doctor Faustus Dossier: Arnold Schoenberg, Thomas Mann, and Their Contemporaries, 1930-1951

This introductory chapter provides the necessary context for the two protagonists (Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann), as well as the leading supporting figure (Theodor Adorno). It aims to guide ... More

This introductory chapter provides the necessary context for the two protagonists (Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann), as well as the leading supporting figure (Theodor Adorno). It aims to guide readers through the thicket of acquaintances, old grudges and new anxieties, problems of politics and aesthetics that resonate—sometimes faintly, sometimes clearly—between the lines in the essays and exchanges gathered in this volume. These are, after all, one reason scholars, students, and lay readers have returned to the Faustus controversy time and time again. The other is that rarely has a literary controversy spoken so directly to a unique place and time: Faustus could not have been written, and Faustus could not have generated the controversy that it did, outside of the highly peculiar setting of Southern California during the Second World War.Less

Lateness as ‘a European Language’: Theodor W. Adorno and Late Style

Ben Hutchinson

in Lateness and Modern European Literature

Chapter 14 concentrates on arguably the most influential twentieth-century theorist of lateness: Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s views on lateness are characteristically subtle and sophisticated, and relate ... More

Chapter 14 concentrates on arguably the most influential twentieth-century theorist of lateness: Theodor Adorno. Adorno’s views on lateness are characteristically subtle and sophisticated, and relate in complex ways to his views on modernity more broadly. If the relationship between the aesthetic and late modernity forms the defining focus of his thought, the relationship between the late aesthetic and modernity offers a microcosm of this thought. Beginning from his seminal four-page essay ‘On Beethoven’s Late Style’, the chapter proceeds to view lateness as a red thread running throughout Adorno’s thought, from the early work on late style in the 1930s to the reflections on the vexed status of culture after the Holocaust in the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, the chapter also considers Adorno’s theorization of Kafka, Beckett, and Thomas Mann as exemplary writers of ‘late’ modernity, arguing that lateness ultimately emerges from this theorization as a ‘truly European language’.Less

Theodor Adorno and the “Occult”

Arthur Versluis

in The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism

This chapter examines the works of German sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno in relation to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It suggests that irrationalism was a significant theme of ... More

This chapter examines the works of German sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno in relation to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It suggests that irrationalism was a significant theme of Adorno's works, especially as manifested in what he termed the occult or occultism. It explains that Adorno's attacks on what he believed to be occultism represent an anti-esotericism of the left that is almost a mirror reflection of the Inquisitorial tendency that we often see operating on the political right. He believed that Nazism represented an eruption of antirational or irrational forces in society, which he believed to the contributing conditions for anti-Semitism and Nazi authoritarianism.Less

Art and Its Resistance to Society: Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory

Ehrhard Bahr

in Weimar on the Pacific: German Exile Culture in Los Angeles and the Crisis of Modernism

This chapter focuses on the concept of the “culture industry,” as defined in Dialectic of Enlightenment, and on Theodor W. Adorno's Philosophy of Modern Music of 1949 and his late Aesthetic Theory of ... More

This chapter focuses on the concept of the “culture industry,” as defined in Dialectic of Enlightenment, and on Theodor W. Adorno's Philosophy of Modern Music of 1949 and his late Aesthetic Theory of 1970. The process of enlightenment had proved both progressive and regressive, and culminated in a crisis around 1933 that needed not only political action to decide its outcome, but also philosophical reflection to chart the future course of enlightenment. The chapter shows how Adorno, in his book on Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, integrated the development of modern music into the historical process and identified resistance to society as the function of art. Later in his aesthetics, Adorno added the concept of art as historical record and the permanent language of human suffering. As a close reading of the chapter “The Culture Industry” shows, Max Horkheimer and Adorno suggest similarities between Adolf Hitler and Hollywood, or between German national socialism and American mass culture.Less

Adorno’s Negative Dialectic as a Form of Life: Expression, Suffering, and Freedom

Martin Shuster

in Autonomy After Auschwitz: Adorno, German Idealism, and Modernity

This chapter is the cornerstone of the book and accomplishes four large tasks. First, it elaborates Adorno’s theory of practical reason, including his notion of ‘the addendum,’ his philosophy of ... More

This chapter is the cornerstone of the book and accomplishes four large tasks. First, it elaborates Adorno’s theory of practical reason, including his notion of ‘the addendum,’ his philosophy of action, and his ethical theory. Second, it puts Adorno into a complex dialogue with Stanley Cavell, showing how their philosophies of language and also their ethical views intersect. Third, it elaborates what it means to be autonomous ‘after Auschwitz,’ showing the moral stakes of such an environment. Fourth, and finally, it puts Adorno’s theory of morality and action into dialogue with figures like Anscombe, Kant, and Davidson, amongst others.Less

The Aesthetic Taboo: Aura, Magic, and the Primitive

David Lloyd

in Under Representation: The Racial Regime of Aesthetics

“The Aesthetic Taboo” concerns the place of primitive anthropology in the aesthetic theory of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It traces the influence of Freud’s Totem and Taboo through their ... More

“The Aesthetic Taboo” concerns the place of primitive anthropology in the aesthetic theory of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It traces the influence of Freud’s Totem and Taboo through their work, in the concepts myth, magic, and aura. Neither thinker ever manages to escape the historical narrative of aesthetics: the transition from a state of necessity that defines the Savage as pathological subject, through a state of domination to an ideal state of freedom. Adorno and Benjamin continue to think within the traditions of Kant and Schiller. Yet in Aesthetic Theory magic images the sensuous remnant in the artwork that withstands rationalization. This “pathological” moment restores to the aesthetic its foundations in pleasure and pain and demands the destruction of the racial regime of representation. Its analogy with the Subaltern suggests another conception of life in common, predicated on the pains and pleasures of the pathological subject.Less