The German philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) remains famous today for his Marxist critiques of popular culture as well as for a prose style as intricately knotty as a macrame vest. Among his most characteristically memorable pronouncements was this: \u201cThe critique of culture is confronted with the last stage in the dialectic of culture and barbarism: to write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric, and that corrodes also the knowledge which expresses why it has become impossible to write poetry today.\u201d Less daunting than this statement is his lecture to a German audience in 1962, published in German in 1963, and here translated into English for the first time. In just over 40 pages of compelling speech, Adorno outlines the nature of antisemitism, some reasons why it persists, and why it has been long embedded in our educational institutions. Adorno argues that antisemitism often begins \u201cin the family home.\u201d It is reinforced in schooling. \u201cI suspect that a considerable number of teachers still sympathize silently, tacitly, non-explicitly with antisemitism.\u201d What is the answer? Open-mindedness, a global sensibility, and an awareness of class and cultural conflict. \u201cEffective prevention of antisemitism is inseparable from a prevention of nationalism in all its forms. One cannot be against antisemitism on the one hand while being a militant nationalist on the other.\u201d Following the lecture in this book is an interpretive essay by the scholar Peter Gordon, situating the talk in the context of Adorno\u2019s larger concerns with \u201cgroup solidarity.\u201d \u201cThe warm feeling of a collective bond,\u201d Gordon writes, increases when the group expels those \u201cwho bear the stigma of difference.\u201d Delivered over 60 years ago, Adorno\u2019s lecture could be heard as fresh news today.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The German philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) remains famous today for his Marxist critiques of popular culture as well as for a prose style as intricately knotty as a macrame vest. Among his most characteristically memorable pronouncements was this: \u201cThe critique of culture is confronted with the last stage in the dialectic of culture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}