Stijl als grondslag. Het filosofisch schrijverschap van Adorno

Abstract

Adorno's philosophical authorship. Recent Dutch publications describe Theodor W. Adorno's writing as a form of obscurity that philosophers do better to avoid. This goes back to Habermas' critique of the subject-object model that would underlie his work, and to the objection that Adorno failed to deliver a theory of mimesis. In opposition to this, it is demonstrated that style and mimesis are the foundation of Adorno's work. It is part of the anti-foundational tradition of philosophical poetics that was begun by the early German romantics. To explain his style, the influence of his stylistic role models, composer Alban Berg and literary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, is discussed. Adorno's central theme, in keeping with early romanticism, is the rewriting of myths.