The Semblance of Subjectivity
Subtitle: Essays in Adorno's Aesthetic Theory (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
Contributors: Tom Huhn (Editor); Lambert Zuidervaart (Editor)
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: April 25, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780262082570
Subjects: Western philosophy, from c 1900 -; Esthetics; Philosophy; Aesthetics; Adorno, Theodor W; Asthetische Theorie; Philosophy / General; 1903-1969.; 20th century; Adorno, Theodor W.,; Aesthetics, Modern
Description: The eleven essays in the volume are organized around the twin themes of semblance and subjectivity. Whereas the concept of semblance, or illusion, points to Adorno's links with Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, the concept of subjectivity recalls his lifelong struggle with a philosophy of consciousness stemming from Kant, Hegel, and Georg Lukacs. Adorno's elaboration of the two concepts takes many dialectical twists.

Art, despite the taint of illusion that it has carried since Plato's Republic, turns out in Adorno's account of modernism to have a sophisticated capacity to critique illusion, including its own. Adorno's aesthetics emphasizes the connection between aesthetic theory and many other aspects of social theory. The paradoxical genius of Aesthetic Theory is that it turns traditional concepts into a theoretical cutting edge.