Notes to Literature, Volume 2

by Theodor W. Adorno

-- Susan Sontag

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Essays, Literary Criticism, Criticism

350 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1992

About the author

Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II. Although less well known among anglophone philosophers than his contemporary Hans-Georg Gadamer, Adorno had even greater influence on scholars and intellectuals in postwar Germany. In the 1960s he was the most prominent challenger to both Sir Karl Popper's philosophy of science and Martin Heidegger's philosophy of existence. Jürgen Habermas, Germany's foremost social philosopher after 1970, was Adorno's student and assistant. The scope of Adorno's influence stems from the interdisciplinary character of his research and of the Frankfurt School to which he belonged. It also stems from the thoroughness with which he examined Western philosophical traditions, especially from Kant onward, and the radicalness to his critique of contemporary Western society. He was a seminal social philosopher and a leading member of the first generation of Critical Theory.

Unreliable translations hampered the initial reception of Adorno's published work in English speaking countries. Since the 1990s, however, better translations have appeared, along with newly translated lectures and other posthumous works that are still being published. These materials not only facilitate an emerging assessment of his work in epistemology and ethics but also strengthen an already advanced reception of his work in aesthetics and cultural theory.

Reviews

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second companion volume to Adorn's first volume of essays on Literature ranges from Dickens to Proust by way of Benjamin and Kracauer. These are not your average essays on literary criticism, but are more concerned with the nature of the creative process as reflected through the lens of the chosen subjects.

There is a depth, an insight that I find lacking in other critics, since a number of the writers represented here were contemporaries and even friends of Adorno which gives the writing an added immediacy.

Finally the most interesting aspect of these essays is what they reveal about Adorno, as thinker, and writer, for they are not easy to read, the thoughts are complex and detailed and require patience and thought to unravel. They are well worth the effort and very worthwhile.

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn, how IS it that Adorno can have such a fresh perspective on every artistic artifact within popular culture that he writes about? This might sound weird, but he reminds me of Marshall McLuhan in this sense....or I suppose I should say it is the other way around.