Abstract
In my presentation, I will try to sketch a few observations gained through the ongoing translation of Adorno's Notes to literature and connect Adorno's statements from the opening text Essay as a form with other texts of this collection. What should be a former (and also contemporary) philosopher aware of while reflecting culture and art? How to capture the phenomena around us without being unconsciously affected by restricting intellectual prejudices? Which literary works does Adorno find valuable and what is specific about them? And how to approximate the intellectual experience (geistige Erfahrung) through the essayistic form? The aim of the presentation will be to shed light on these questions and to show that Adorno's seemingly dashed constellation of insights in Notes to Literature follows a very specific philosophical intuition and the book itself creates a point as a collection of essays.
Adorno offers us though unsystematic yet very focused and sharp insights into our intellectual affection caused by the up-to-date tradition and into the possibilities of our thinking once we let the enlightenment-caused tendencies go.