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Adorno's Critical Presence: Cultural theory and literary value
chapter
posted on 2023-06-08, 07:55 authored by Martin Ryle, Kate SoperThe chapter defends Adorno's highly selective sense of literary value. In particular, we reject the common implication that Adorno's esthetic discriminations are the cover for social elitism: on the contrary, his virtue is to have inisted that capitalist social relations make 'cultural democracy' impossible even though it would be desirable. In Adornian poetics, the autonomy of artist and critic is to be understood as the space left open for a vision undetermined by those relations. We trace this 'impossible' invocation of the 'magic of art' to the Aristotelian conception of literature's 'graver import'. Seeking to extend the reach of an Adornian critique of the novel beyond Adorno's own modernist canon, the chapter concludes with a reading of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
History
Publication status
- Published
Publisher
ContinuumPage range
26-39Pages
14.0Book title
Adorno and LiteratureISBN
0826487521Department affiliated with
- English Publications
Notes
This is a fully collaborative chapter, equally the work of both writers: my co-author is a philosopher and the chapter combines philosophical, litertary-critical and cultural-historical lines of argument and discussion.Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
David Cunningham, Nigel MappLegacy Posted Date
2012-02-06Usage metrics
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