A talk given by Platypus member Chris Cutrone at Loyola University, on April 21st, 2010. Cosponsored by Pi Sigma Tau, STAND, and SAF.
Audio Recording
Transcript in Platypus Review #37
Description
The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno’s Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno’s Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.
Recommended background readings
Max Horkheimer, “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom” (1926)
Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944)
Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)