Jan Schroeder

This article originally appeared in Die Platypus Review #10 in German.1 It has been translated into English by Clint Montgomery. WHEN IT COMES TO LYOTARD’S POSTMODERN THESIS about the end of grand narratives, from enlightenment to historicism, everybody knows he’s talking about Marx. Politically speaking, no other grand narrative survived the 19th century. For the fate of the enlightenment stood revealed in its stance toward socialism: since the emergence of the workers’ movement, liberalism was left with two options, either curtail its own ideals in cultural pessimism or just straight up make camp with the enemy. [Read More]

Detlev Claussen is Professor Emeritus at Leibniz University in Germany and author of Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius. He defends Critical Theory’s political relevance against both academic co-optation and the charge of retreat into the academic ivory tower. His writings investigate, among other things, Lenin’s influence on Adorno’s thought. Jan Schroeder is a member of Platypus. The following interview was conducted in German on March 21, 2017. What follows is Clara Picker’s translation of the transcript of that interview. [Read More]