Adorno's Positive Dialectic

This book offers an interpretation of the work of Theodor Adorno.

Yvonne Sherratt (Author)

9780521038881, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 August 2007

272 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.411 kg

'Yvonne Sherratt's interpretation of Adorno's positive dialectic is provocative, lucid and original. By reconstructing hidden Freudian dimensions, she rescues Adorno's critique of enlightenment from poststructuralist pessimism. By insisting on an aesthetic way of knowing, she reclaims Adorno's utopian language from Habermasian neglect. And by reconciling these two poles in Adorno's dialectic, Yvonne Sherratt suggests a new relevance for Adorno's work.' Lambert Zuidervaart, Calvin College

This book offers an interpretation of the work of Theodor Adorno. In contrast to the conventional view that Adorno's is in essence a critical philosophy, Yvonne Sherratt traces systematically a utopian thesis that pervades all the major aspects of Adorno's thought. She places Adorno's work in the context of German Idealist and later Marxist and Freudian traditions, and then analyses his key works to show how the aesthetic, epistemological, psychological, historical and sociological thought interconnect to form a utopian image. The book will be eagerly sought out by students and specialists in philosophy, social and political theory, intellectual history, literary theory and cultural studies.

Preface
Abbreviations
General introduction
Prelude to Adorno's Intellectual Tradition: Prelude I: Adorno's intellectual tradition: German philosophy
Prelude II: Adorno's intellectual tradition: Sigmund Freud
Part I. Negative Thesis: The Decline of Enlightenment: 1. The decline of subjectivity: the instincts
2. The decline of subjectivity: narcissism
3. The decline of knowledge acquisition
4. Knowledge acquisition: a negative solution
Part II. Positive Thesis: The Redemption of Enlightenment: 5. The aesthetic: aura
6. Knowledge acquisition: an aesthetic form
7. A positive dialectic of knowledge acquisition
8. A positive dialectic of subjectivity: the instincts
9. A positive dialectic of subjectivity: the structure of the self
Concluding comments
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Literary theory [DSA]