Overview

Full Product Details

9781498525008

Table of Contents

Reviews

In complex yet stimulating and often path-breaking readings of Adorno's philosophy, and with breathtaking accounts of such writers as Bonnefoy, Musil, and Woolf, Foster addresses the late modern condition from the vantage-point of experience. As our lifeworld gets increasingly commodified, digitalized and instrumentalized, the need for a reconsideration of what authentic experience demands has never seemed more timely. For readers interested in the intersection between philosophy, literature and the question of modernity, this book is bound to be a unique resource. -- Espen Hammer, Temple University

In many respects, Foster's study can be seen as a sequel or companion volume to his important Adorno: The Recovery of Experience (CH, Jun'08, 45-5498). Whereas that book focused on the philosophical context of Adorno's work, this study embraces a culturally broader view of what Foster (Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY) terms philosophical modernism. Foster expands this discussion to consider literary modernism, focusing on such figures as Yves Bonnefoy, Robert Musil, and Virginia Woolf. The book as a whole, however, is carefully grounded in Adorno's philosophy. Indeed, the author has mined the full corpus of Adorno's work for this project, even incorporating detailed discussion of Adorno's engagement with Heidegger. Foster argues that, for Adorno, the means-be they philosophy, literature, or language itself-to come to terms with experience in the context of modernism are no longer adequate to the task. As a result, the only meaningful response is a philosophy (or literature) that embraces an interpretive practice that seeks to account for this very inadequacy. This is a rewarding study that does justice to its challenging subject. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE * Roger Foster has written an ambitious, timely, unique, and useful book on the work of German thinker Theodor W. Adorno.... [M]y aim-as Foster's book also aims and accomplishes-is to highlight the continuing relevance of Adorno's work for our present moment and, indeed, for the history of philosophy from Kant onward; this book is a welcome addition to that undertaking. * The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism * In complex yet stimulating and often path-breaking readings of Adorno's philosophy, and with breathtaking accounts of such writers as Bonnefoy, Musil, and Woolf, Foster addresses the late modern condition from the vantage-point of experience. As our lifeworld gets increasingly commodified, digitalized and instrumentalized, the need for a reconsideration of what authentic experience demands has never seemed more timely. For readers interested in the intersection between philosophy, literature and the question of modernity, this book is bound to be a unique resource. -- Espen Hammer, Temple University

Author Information

Roger Foster teaches philosophy at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available