Adorno and Proust on the recovery of experience

Critical Horizons 8 (2):169-185 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I argue in this paper that a recovery of the cognitive role of the experiencing subject is the common theme uniting Theodor Adorno's philosophy and Marcel Proust's literary project. This shared commitment is evidenced by the importance given by both thinkers to the expressive dimension of language in relation to its social function as a vehicle for communication. Furthermore, I argue that Adorno and Proust conceive of language's expressive dimension as the expression of suffering. However, whereas, for Proust, this means the private suffering of the artist transforming itself into a work of art, for Adorno it means suffering that is rooted in sociohistorical conditions. It is this thesis, I suggest, that enables Adorno to employ the recovery of the experiencing subject as a form of social criticism.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Adorno and the disenchantment of nature.Alison Stone - 2006 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 32 (2):231-253.
The Art of Useless Suffering.Andrew Edgar - 2007 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (4):95-405.
Can one live after Auschwitz?: a philosophical reader.Theodor W. Adorno - 2003 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. Edited by Rolf Tiedemann.
Adorno and the political.Espen Hammer - 2006 - New York, NY: Routledge.
Adorno and the Problem of Givenness.Brian O'Connor - 2004 - Revue Internationale de Philosophie 1:85-99.
Adorno and Heidegger on language and the inexpressible.Roger Foster - 2007 - Continental Philosophy Review 40 (2):187-204.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
95 (#165,937)

6 months
2 (#658,848)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Roger S Foster
Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY)

References found in this work

Truth and Method.H. G. Gadamer - 1975 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 36 (4):487-490.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.Richard Rorty - 1989 - The Personalist Forum 5 (2):149-152.
La pensée et le mouvant.Henri Bergson - 1934 - Paris,: F. Alcan.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.R. Rorty - 1989 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 52 (3):566-566.

View all 13 references / Add more references