Theodor W. Adorno (SA) | Released: 01 May 2004

Theodor W.Adorno was one of the towering intellectuals of the twentieth century. His contributions cover such a myriad of fields, including the sociology of culture, social theory, the philosophy of music, ethics, art and aesthetics, film, ideology, the critique of modernity and musical composition, that it is difficult to assimilate the sheer range and profundity of his achievement. His celebrated friendship with Walter Benjamin has produced some of the most moving and insightful correspondence on the origins and objects of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.

This unprecedented collection, devised and assembled by one of Europe′s rising social theorists, distills the best from published assessments and responses to Adorno′s oeuvre. The collection is divided into 4 volumes:

Volume 1: Philosophy, Ethics and Critical Theory

Part 1: Negative Dialectics

Included here are contributions on the concept of totality in the writings of Adorno and Lukacs; Adorno and Bourgeois Philosophy; the relationship between Adorno and Kierkegaard; Adorno′s Critique of Idealism; Adorno and Linguistics; Adono and Habermas.

Part 2: Ethics and Redemption

This is comprised of contributions on Adorno and Truth; Adorno′s Inverse Theology; and Adorno and the Ineffable

Part 3: Critical Theory, Ideology Critique and Social Science

Included here are contributions on Adorno′s relation to the Positivist Dispute; the Popper-Adorno Controversy; Adorno and Empirical Research; and Hermeneutics and Critical Theory.

Volume 2: Aesthetic Theory

Part 1: Art and Politics in ′Aesthetic Theory′

This includes material on the De-Aestheticization of Art; Adorno, Utopia and Mimesis; Adorno and autonomous art; Adorno and Dialectics; Adorno, Marxism and Art; Art and Criticism in Adorno′s Aesthetics; Adorno′s concept of the Avant-Garde.

Part 2: Philosophy of Music

This includes contributions on Adorno′s music and social criticism; Adorno and nostalgia; Adorno, Heidegger and the meaning of music; Adorno and Wagner.

Part 3: On Jazz

The material included here addresses questions of Adorno and Popular Music; Adorno′s encounter with jazz; Adorno, Jazz and Society; and the reasons for Adorno′s apparent hatred of jazz.

Volume 3: Social Theory & The Critique of Modernity

Part 1: On ′The Dialectic of Enlightenment′

Included here are chapters on the dialectic of enlightenment and post-functionalist thought; dialectic of enlightenment as genealogy critique; the relationship between the dialectic of enlightenment, modernity and postmodernity; Adorno′s critique of progress; Adorno and theories of subjectivity; and the dialectic of enlightenment and rationality.

Part 2: Anti-Semitism

This consists of material on Adorno and Horkheimer; and Adorno and Public Sphere

Part 3: Popular Culture and Capitalism

Included here are contributions on Adorno and Sport; Adorno′s alleged left-wing elitism; Adorno′s critique of astrology and the Occult; Benjamin and Adorno on Disney; Adorno, Totalitarianism and the Welfare State; and Adorno and Mass Society.

Volume 4: Cultural Theory and the Postmodern Challenge

Part 1: ′Damaged Life′ Exile in America

This section includes Leo Lowenthal′s insightful recollections of Adorno; Adorno and the primal history of subjectivity; Adorno and Los Angeles; Adorno′s relation to American culture; and Adorno′s exile in England.

Part 2: Film Theory

This section includes chapters on Adorno and the Culture Industry; Benjamin, Adorno and Contemporary Film Theory; Adorno, Aesthetics and the Social.

Part 3: Wellmer and Adorno

Included here are papers on Aesthetic, Psychic and Social Synthesis in Adorno and Wellmer; and New German Aesthetic Theory after Adorno.

Part 4: Jameson on Adorno

Included here are papers on Jameson, Adorno and the persistence of the Utopian; and a Marxism for Postmodernism

Part 5: Modernism and Postmodernism

This section contains papers on Adorno, Foucault and the Modern Intellectual; Adorno, Foucault and Two forms of the Critique of Modernity; Adorno and the Habermas-Lyotard Debate; Adorno, Postmodernism and Edward Said; Adorno, Heidegger and Postmodernism; Adorno and the Decline of the Modern Age; The literary process of modernism; Adorno, Tradition and the Postmodern

Part 5: The Feminist Response

Included here are contributions on Adorno and Judith Butler; Adorno, Art Theory and Feminist Practice; and Gender in the writings of Adorno and Horkheimer.

The collection comes with a superb Introduction to Adorno by Gerard Delanty which elucidates the main contributions of this penetrating and enduring thinker.

Comprehensive and consistently illuminating, the collection includes the thought on Adorno from some of the most distinguished commentators on social theory. Included here are selections from the writings of Susan Buck-Morss, Martin Jay, Agnes Heller; David Frisby; Johann Arnason; Richard Wolin; Andrew Bowie; Robert Hulnot-Kentor; Leo Lowenthal; Richard Rorty Axel Honneth; Albrecht Wellmer; and Jurgen Habermas.

The result is a peerless research resource allowing readers to delve into all aspects of Adorno′s extraordinary accomplishments in social thought, philosophy and cultural criticism. It will be required reading for students of the Frankfurt School, Marxism, Critical Theory, Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics and Social Theory.