Home Literary Studies 14 From Minima Moralia (1951)
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

14 From Minima Moralia (1951)

View more publications by Princeton University Press
To Publisher Page
The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature
This chapter is in the book The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature
14From Minima Moralia1 (1951)Theodor AdornoTheodor Adorno was one of the most infl uential critical thinkers of the twentieth century, a philosopher whose multifaceted works combine aesthetics, sociology, political theory, music criticism, and literary analysis. Born in Frankfurt in 1903 as Theodor Wiesengrund, he was the son of a prosperous German Jewish wine merchant and a talented musician from a Catholic family in Corsica; he later took his mother’s maiden name for his own. Adorno divided his university studies between philosophy and musical composition. Though he chose philosophy as his profession, he was an accomplished pianist and wrote often on music as well as literature. Having completed a dissertation on Kierkegaard’s aesthetic theory in 1931, Adorno began a university career but was dismissed two years later when the Nazis came to power and began purging the uni-versities of people of Jewish descent. He moved to Oxford, then New York and Los Angeles, returning to Germany in 1949. He became closely associated with the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, long headed by his close friend and collaborator Max Horkheimer; Adorno himself directed the institute from 1958 until his death in 1969. The interdisciplin-ary sociological, philosophical, and cultural-critical projects of the Frank-furt School have had a major impact on contemporary discussions of culture and society.
© 2021 Princeton University Press, Princeton

14From Minima Moralia1 (1951)Theodor AdornoTheodor Adorno was one of the most infl uential critical thinkers of the twentieth century, a philosopher whose multifaceted works combine aesthetics, sociology, political theory, music criticism, and literary analysis. Born in Frankfurt in 1903 as Theodor Wiesengrund, he was the son of a prosperous German Jewish wine merchant and a talented musician from a Catholic family in Corsica; he later took his mother’s maiden name for his own. Adorno divided his university studies between philosophy and musical composition. Though he chose philosophy as his profession, he was an accomplished pianist and wrote often on music as well as literature. Having completed a dissertation on Kierkegaard’s aesthetic theory in 1931, Adorno began a university career but was dismissed two years later when the Nazis came to power and began purging the uni-versities of people of Jewish descent. He moved to Oxford, then New York and Los Angeles, returning to Germany in 1949. He became closely associated with the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, long headed by his close friend and collaborator Max Horkheimer; Adorno himself directed the institute from 1958 until his death in 1969. The interdisciplin-ary sociological, philosophical, and cultural-critical projects of the Frank-furt School have had a major impact on contemporary discussions of culture and society.
© 2021 Princeton University Press, Princeton

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. TRANSLATION/ TRANSNATION ii
  3. CONTENTS v
  4. INTRODUCTION ix
  5. PART ONE ORIGINS
  6. 1 Results of a Comparison of Different Peoples’ Poetry in Ancient and Modern Times (1797) 1
  7. 2 Of the General Spirit of Modern Literature (1800) 10
  8. 3 Conversations on World Literature (1827) 17
  9. 4 From The Birth of Tragedy (1872) 26
  10. 5 Present Tasks of Comparative Literature (1877) 41
  11. 6 The Comparative Method and Literature (1886) 50
  12. 7 World Literature (1899) 61
  13. 8 From What Is Comparative Literature? (1903) 67
  14. PA R T TWO THE YEARS OF CRISIS
  15. 9 The Epic and the Novel (1916) 81
  16. 10 Chaos in the Literary World (1934) 92
  17. 11 From Epic and Novel (1941) 104
  18. 12 Preface to European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (1948) 120
  19. 13 Philology and Weltliteratur (1952) 125
  20. 14 From Minima Moralia (1951) 139
  21. 15 Poetry, Society, State (1956) 150
  22. 16 Preface to La Littérature comparée (1951) 158
  23. 17 The Crisis of Comparative Literature (1959) 161
  24. PART THREE THE THEORY YEARS
  25. 18 The Structuralist Activity (1963) 175
  26. 19 Women’s Time (1977) 183
  27. 20 Semiology and Rhetoric (1973) 208
  28. 21 Writing (1990) 227
  29. 22 The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem (1978) 240
  30. 23 Cross-Cultural Poetics: National Literatures (1981) 248
  31. 24 The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983) 259
  32. 25 The Quest for Relevance (1986) 284
  33. PART FOUR CONTEMPORARY EXPLORATIONS
  34. 26 Comparative Cosmopolitanism (1992) 309
  35. 27 Literature, Nation, and Politics (1999) 329
  36. 28 Comparative Literature in China (2000) 341
  37. 29 From Translation, Community, Utopia (2000) 358
  38. 30 Crossing Borders (2003) 380
  39. 31 Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur (2006) 399
  40. 32 A New Comparative Literature (2006) 409
  41. BIBLIOGRAPHIES 421
  42. CREDITS 431
  43. INDEX 435
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400833702-016

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. TRANSLATION/ TRANSNATION ii
  3. CONTENTS v
  4. INTRODUCTION ix
  5. PART ONE ORIGINS
  6. 1 Results of a Comparison of Different Peoples’ Poetry in Ancient and Modern Times (1797) 1
  7. 2 Of the General Spirit of Modern Literature (1800) 10
  8. 3 Conversations on World Literature (1827) 17
  9. 4 From The Birth of Tragedy (1872) 26
  10. 5 Present Tasks of Comparative Literature (1877) 41
  11. 6 The Comparative Method and Literature (1886) 50
  12. 7 World Literature (1899) 61
  13. 8 From What Is Comparative Literature? (1903) 67
  14. PA R T TWO THE YEARS OF CRISIS
  15. 9 The Epic and the Novel (1916) 81
  16. 10 Chaos in the Literary World (1934) 92
  17. 11 From Epic and Novel (1941) 104
  18. 12 Preface to European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (1948) 120
  19. 13 Philology and Weltliteratur (1952) 125
  20. 14 From Minima Moralia (1951) 139
  21. 15 Poetry, Society, State (1956) 150
  22. 16 Preface to La Littérature comparée (1951) 158
  23. 17 The Crisis of Comparative Literature (1959) 161
  24. PART THREE THE THEORY YEARS
  25. 18 The Structuralist Activity (1963) 175
  26. 19 Women’s Time (1977) 183
  27. 20 Semiology and Rhetoric (1973) 208
  28. 21 Writing (1990) 227
  29. 22 The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem (1978) 240
  30. 23 Cross-Cultural Poetics: National Literatures (1981) 248
  31. 24 The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983) 259
  32. 25 The Quest for Relevance (1986) 284
  33. PART FOUR CONTEMPORARY EXPLORATIONS
  34. 26 Comparative Cosmopolitanism (1992) 309
  35. 27 Literature, Nation, and Politics (1999) 329
  36. 28 Comparative Literature in China (2000) 341
  37. 29 From Translation, Community, Utopia (2000) 358
  38. 30 Crossing Borders (2003) 380
  39. 31 Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur (2006) 399
  40. 32 A New Comparative Literature (2006) 409
  41. BIBLIOGRAPHIES 421
  42. CREDITS 431
  43. INDEX 435
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 24.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400833702-016/html?srsltid=AfmBOoppXa_wVT438Kfyr2FbqrU8txR6c69jix9ICfMjH263YB9QOWLV
Scroll to top button