Adorno: The Stars down to Earth and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture

Overview

Theodor Adorno was one of the giants of twentieth-century thought. This volume collects his key articles on the irrational in mass culture. Although he wrote them half a century ago Adorno's ideas are relevant to the understanding of phenomena as apparently diverse as:
- astrology and "New Age" cults
- the power of neo-fascist propaganda and the re-emergence of anti-Semitism
- the psychological basis of popular culture.
His superb essay, The Stars Down To Earth is an innovative and startling analysis of the astrology column in a Los Angeles newspaper. Adorno argues that the column promotes fascist dependency and social conformism in much the same way as fascist propaganda. He maintains that the same principles operate in the mainstream products of the 'culture industry'.
The three shorter papers illuminate different aspects of Adorno's argument: the relation of occultism to orthodox modern thought, the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism, and the ''psycho-technic'' rhetoric of fascist propaganda. The collection shows Adorno at his brilliant and maddening best. Stephen Crook's introduction critically reviews Adorno's argument and offers an assessment of its contemporary relevance.

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Author Information

Bio of Theodor W. Adorno

Theodor W. Adorno is the progenitor of critical theory, a central figure in aesthetics, and the century's foremost philosopher of music. He was born and educated in Frankfurt, Germany. After completing his Ph.D. in philosophy, he went to Vienna, where he studied composition with Alban Berg. He soon was bitterly disappointed with his own lack of talent and turned to musicology. In 1928 Adorno returned to Frankfurt to join the Institute for Social Research, commonly known as The Frankfurt School. At first a privately endowed center for Marxist studies, the school was merged with Frankfort's university under Adorno's directorship in the 1950s. As a refugee from Nazi Germany during World War II, Adorno lived for several years in Los Angeles before returning to Frankfurt. Much of his most significant work was produced at that time. Critics find Adorno's aesthetics to be rich in insight, even when they disagree with its broad conclusions. Although Adorno was hostile to jazz and popular music, he advanced the cause of contemporary music by writing seminal studies of many key composers. To the distress of some of his admirers, he remained pessimistic about the prospects for art in mass society. Adorno was a neo-Marxist who believed that the only hope for democracy was to be found in an interpretation of Marxism opposed to both positivism and dogmatic materialism. His opposition to positivisim and advocacy of a method of dialectics grounded in critical rationalism propelled him into intellectual conflict with Georg Hegel, Martin Heidegger, and Heideggerian hermeneutics. 020

Bio of Stephen Crook

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Additional Info

Imprint

Taylor & Francis

Filesize

758.54 KB

Number of Pages

224

eBook ISBN

9780203426234