Overview

In the decades since his death, Adorno's thinking has lost none of its capacity to unsettle the settled, and has proved hugely influential in social and cultural thought. To most people, the entertainment provided by television, radio, film, newspapers, astrology charts and CD players seem harmless enough. For Adorno, however, the culture industry that produces them is ultimately toxic in its effect on the social process. He argues that it manufactures under conditions that reflect the interests of the producers and the market, both of which demanded the domination and manipulation of mass consciousness. Here, Robert W. Witkin unpacks Adorno's notoriously difficult critique of popular culture in an engaging and accessible style, looking first at the development of the overarching theories of authority, commodification and negative dialectics within which Adorno's work needs to be seen. He then goes on to consider Adorno's writing on specific aspects of popular culture such as radio, film, popular music and jazz. This book will be essential reading for students of the sociology of culture, of cultural studies and of critical theory more generally.

Full Product Details

9780415268240

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Reviews

'a highly misanthropic but very funny and true analysis of the power and effect of the mass media' Alain de Botton, Telegraph

Author Information

Witkin, Robert W.

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