Course Description:
The course is designed to familiarize students with the intellectual context of the work of Theodor W. Adorno within the project of the so-called Frankfurt School. Key readings from Horkheimer, Benjamin, Marcuse and others, as well as later thinkers like Habermas, will be considered primarily as background and context for understanding some essential texts by Adorno. At issue is the project and afterlife of Frankfurt School critical theory particularly as it has informed, and continues to inform, literary critical studies. While many students receive elsewhere considerable exposure to works by Walter Benjamin, it is my understanding that a background in the sociological and philosophical tradition which that work draws upon is often lacking (a tradition in and around Marxism and the nascent discipline of sociology equally important for the key thinkers of the Frankfurt tradition). Moreover it is my particular belief that the work of Benjamin’s younger contemporary, friend, erstwhile disciple, and successor, though perhaps less fashionable in recent times, is ultimately of greater value for a philosophical critique of modern culture. In presentations and papers students are welcome to explore other perspectives on this crucial intellectual relationship (Benjamin-Adorno), among other things, but Benjamin, for obvious historical reasons, will NOT be the focus of the class (n.b.).