Refractions

This book contains a selection of twelve essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of art by Theodor W. Adorno. It is divided into four sections: Literature Culture Industry Aesthetic Theory and Music. The first section contains three chapters: the first analyzes Adorno’s reading of Kafka; the second focuses on the famous text “Parataxis. Hölderlin’s Late Lyric”; the third interprets Dostoevsky’s book “The Double” in light of some concepts by Adorno. The second section examines Adorno’s texts “The Fetish Character of Music and the Regression of Listening” and “Theory of Semi-Formation” presenting a critical reading of the former text particularly regarding the concept of bad taste. One of the chapters takes a critical approach to Adorno and Walter Benjamin’s stance on works produced in technological mediums. The third section addresses Adorno’s conception of the artwork considering its critical stance regarding the ideology of instrumental rationality its profoundly historical dimension as well as three moments in which art is viewed by the philosopher as connected to the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation. The last section of the book discusses Adorno’s simultaneously praising and critical appreciation of Arnold Schönberg’s avant-garde music highlighting its expressive character and cognitive dimension.