Adorno, Aesthetics, Dissonance: On Dialectics in Modernity

Description

Adorno’s aesthetics is one of the most important philosophical analyses of the twentieth century, but its development remains unclear. This book will for the first time provide a detailed study of the way that Adorno’s thinking of aesthetics developed and show the different dimensions that came together to make it uniquely powerful. Principal among these dimensions is his intense interest in music and his concomitant materialist approach. However, by studying how his aesthetics arose through interactions with different thinkers, particularly Kracauer, Horkheimer, and Schoenberg, it becomes clear that his thought is changed in its relation to dialectics. As a result, Adorno’s thinking comes to broaden the understanding of aesthetics to include the sphere of sensuality, and in doing so transforms both aesthetics and dialectics through a notion of dissonance, which will in turn have substantial implications for the relation of his thinking to praxis. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Epigraph Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Dialectic of Aesthetics I Aesthetics and Nature II Music as Critique Part One The Development of Dialectics 1 Kracauer and the Dialectic of Natural-History I Natural-History of Ornamentation II Advanced Historical Material III Philosophy Interpretation Praxis IV A Balzac Reading 2 Dialectics of the Avant-Garde in Music I Style of Disintegration II Hegel and Absolute Music III Expressions Formal and Dissonant IV An Additional Factor Part Two Refractions of Aesthetics 3 Horkheimer, Sade, and Erotic Reason I Sadean Enlightenment II Ecstatic Expressions 4 Klossowski, Perversity, Criminality I Criminal Philosophy II Speculative Addendum: Negative Labour 5 Beside Herself with Desire: Musil I The Completion of Love II Perverse Works 6 Modernity and Utopia I Absolutely Modern II The Challenge Notes Index