[FRA:] critical theory syllabus reviewed

[simon smith]

In message <Pine.LNX.4.64.0602081713240.17231 at hermes-2.csi.cam.ac.uk>, 
Josh Robinson <jmr59 at hermes.cam.ac.uk> writes
>On Wed, 8 Feb 2006, Ralph Dumain wrote:
>
>> This also reminds me of the problem of prerequisites.  How to 
>>approach this material without a prior grounding in Kant, Hegel, and 
>>Marx at the very least, plus perhaps Freud.
>
>Don't. Without at least some sort of grounding in at least the first 
>three, it's difficult to see how students would get a great deal out of 
>such an introduction.

That's partly why my own approach would be to start with the essays that 
deal most intimately with everyday life - 'The Culture Industry: 
Enlightenment as mass deception'; selected pieces from 'Minima Moralia'; 
and 'The Fetish Character of Music' and work outwards from there, 
finding and drawing attention to Marx, Freud, Hegel and Kant as they 
appear relevant.

Since reading Adorno always involves the skill of suspending in the mind 
things not immediately or fully comprehended, some disorientation is 
inevitable, so I don't see the need for the obvious 'introductory texts' 
like 'Traditional and Critical Theory' and such, especially as this is a 
'local, informal, introductory reading group'. That can surely come 
later.

I recommended Hullot-Kentor's "Right Listening and a New Type of Human 
Being" because it confronts head on the matter of Adorno's relationship 
to American culture, the culture of the 'New Type of Human Being' to 
which all of us, with Europe dragging very hard behind, belong. The 
essay uses Adorno quite deliberately to 'raise the inner hackles' of its 
readers, and I think would make an excellent provocation to discussion.

-- 
Simon Smith




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