Language and History in Theodor W. Adorno's Notes to LiteratureThis is the first book-length study of Adorno's philosophical criticism of literature contained in his four-volume Notes to Literature. Rather than relying exclusively on aesthetic concepts inherited from his predecessors in the Western tradition (such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard), Adorno's essays on literature seek to transgress and transcend the conceptual limitations of aesthetic discourse by appropriating a non-conceptual, metaphorical vocabulary borrowed from the literary texts he investigates. Adorno's interpretations of literature mobilize an alternative subterranean, primarily essayistic and fragmentary discourse on language and history that eludes the categories that tend to predominate his thinking in his major work, Aesthetic Theory. |
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according Adorno Adorno's essays aesthetic allegory already appears argument artworks attempt authority becomes Benjamin Borchardt's calls claims classicism completely concept critical critique culture dialectic Eichendorff's element enigmatic enlightenment entirely example existence experience expression figure finds force formulation Frankfurt George George's German gives Goethe Goethe's Hegel's Heine Heine's human idea ideal individual interpretation Jewish Kraus Kraus's language less linguistic literary literature logic longer lyric Main means nature negative never Notes notion object original paradoxical particular perspective philosophy play poem poet poetic poetry political positive possible precisely presentation provides pure question Rauschen reading refers reflection relation remains rhetorical seeks seems sense signifies simply society sound speak speech structure style suggests takes talk term theory thinking thought tion tradition transition translation truth turns understanding universal wound writings