The Cambridge Companion to Adorno

An accessible guide to T. W. Adorno, who was one of the main philosophers of the Frankfurt School of critical theory.

Tom Huhn (Edited by)

9780521775007, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 July 2004

444 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 2.9 cm, 0.6 kg

"A wonderful guide to the work of the German philosopher Theodor Adorno...a fine work of scholarship and will be helpful to both students and researchers. Highly recommended." S. Barnett, Central Connecticut State University, CHOICE

The great German philosopher and aesthetic theorist Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903–69) was one of the main philosophers of the first generation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. An accomplished musician, Adorno first focused on the theory of culture and art. Later he turned to the problem of the self-defeating dialectic of modern reason and freedom. In this collection of essays, imbued with the most up-to-date research, a distinguished roster of Adorno specialists explore the full range of his contributions to philosophy, history, music theory, aesthetics and sociology. New readers will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to Adorno currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Adorno.

Introduction: thoughts beside themselves Tom Huhn
1. Negative dialectic as fate: Adorno and Hegel J. M. Bernstein
2. Weighty objects: on Adorno's Kant-Freud interpretation Joel Whitebook
3. Adorno, Marx, materialism Simon Jarvis
4. Leaving home: on Adorno and Heidegger Samir Gandesha
5. Is experience still in crisis? Reflections on a Frankfurt school lament Martin Jay
6. Mephistopheles in Hollywood: Adorno, Mann and Schoenberg James Schmidt
7. Right listening and a new type of human being Robert Hullot-Kentor
8. Authenticity and failure in Adorno's aesthetics of music Max Paddison
9. Dissonant works and the listening public Lydia Goehr
10. Adorno, Heidegger and the meaning of music Andrew Bowie
11. The critical theory of society as reflexive sociology Stefan Müller-Doohm
12. Genealogy and critique: two forms of ethical questioning of morality Christoph Menke
13. Adorno's negative moral philosophy Gerhard Schweppenhäuser
14. Adorno's social lyric, and literary criticism today: poetics, aesthetics, modernity Robert Kaufman
15. Adorno's Tom Sawyer opera Singspiel Rolf Tiedemann.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Literary theory [DSA], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]