Aesthetic theory
By: Theodor W. Adorno ; Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann, editors ; newly translated, edited, and with a translator's introduction by Robert Hullot-Kentor.
Contributors: Adorno, Gretel.; Tiedeman, Rolf.
Series: Theory and history of literature ;; v. 88
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Minneapolis, Minn
Language: eng
Number of pages: 383
Subjects: Aesthetics
Description: The culmination of a lifetime of aesthetic investigation, Aesthetic Theory is Adorno's major work, a defense of modernism that is paradoxical in its defense of illusion. In it, Adorno takes up the problem of art in a day when "it goes without saying that nothing concerning art goes without saying." In the course of his discussion, Adorno revisits such concepts as the sublime, the ugly, and the beautiful, demonstrating that concepts such as these are reservoirs of human experience.

These experiences ultimately underlie aesthetics, for in Adorno's formulation "art is the sedimented history of human misery."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.