Dialectic of Enlightenment in the Anglosphere (Horkheimer and Adorno's Remnants of Freedom) ||

This book explores the reception of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment. It examines a variety of perspectives on the text, supplied by e.g. American critical theorists, British New Leftists, Transatlantic Cultural Studies scholars, Postmodernists, and those working in the current after-theory moment from 1970 to 2010. It considers the works of the Frankfurt School, especially Horkheimer and Adorno, alongside the secondary literature on the subject. The main focus is on how various intellectual circles and trends have responded to the Dialectic, making scholarly discussions the primary sources. While the work is a history of the Dialectic of Enlightenment’s Anglophone reception, it also reflects the post-1968 left’s retreat to academia, which echoes the Frankfurt School’s own stance of political resignation. Acknowledgements Contents 1 Introduction References 2 Composing Dialectic of Enlightenment 2.1 The Frankfurt School’s Origins 2.2 Frankfurt’s Peculiarities 2.3 Collaborating for Reason 2.4 Conclusion References 3 Reading Dialectic of Enlightenment 3.1 Dialectic of Enlightenment’s Argument 3.2 Critique of Instrumental Reason 3.3 Myth of Enlightenment 3.4 Enlightenment Morality and Culture 3.5 Enlightenment and Others 3.6 Conclusion References 4 Reviving Dialectic of Enlightenment 4.1 Towards a New Left 4.2 Marcuse as Mascot 4.3 Authoritarian Personalities 4.4 Frankfurt School’s American Influence 4.5 A Critical Telos 4.6 Conclusion References 5 Championing Dialectic of Enlightenment in America 5.1 After the New Left 5.2 Another ‘Sort-Of’ Marxism 5.3 From Dialectic of Enlightenment to Communicative Action 5.4 Conclusion References 6 Reconsidering Dialectic of Enlightenment in America 6.1 The Rise of the Habermasians 6.2 Back to Adorno? 6.3 A Right-Wing Critical Theory? 6.4 Modernist Antidote to Postmodernism 6.5 Conclusion References 7 Dismissing Dialectic of Enlightenment Among Britain’s New Left 7.1 New Left Review Versus the Frankfurt School 7.2 Skipping Frankfurt 7.3 Cultural Marxist Parallelism 7.4 Beyond the British New Left 7.5 Conclusion References 8 Reconciling Dialectic of Enlightenment with Postmodernism 8.1 From Post-structuralism to Postmodernism 8.2 Enlightenment as Domination 8.3 Dialectic of Textuality 8.4 A Question of Subjectivity 8.5 Conclusion References 9 Confronting Dialectic of Enlightenment via Cultural Studies 9.1 The Rise of Cultural Studies 9.2 Beyond Frankfurt and Birmingham 9.3 Consolidating Cultural Studies 9.4 Frankfurt’s Limited Defences 9.5 Fortifying Frankfurt 9.6 Conclusion References 10 Predicting Dialectic of Enlightenment’s Future References