In The Hotel Abyss: An Hegelian-marxist Critique Of Adorno

Robert Lanning, Ph.D. (1990), Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, is part-time Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Mount Saint Vincent University. He has published many articles and two books, Georg Lukács and Organizing Class Consciousness (Marxist Educational Press, 2009), The National Album: Collective Biography and the Formation of the Canadian Middle Class (Carleton University Press, 1996).

• 1. IntroductionBackground and Context The Orientation of the Present StudyAdorno’s Form of PresentationTheory and PracticeThe Management of Politics and Personal RelationsThe Socio-Historical Context2. Hegel, Marx, DialecticsThe Individual Being and Self-consciousnessBecoming Contradiction Hegel’s Positivity, Critical Theory’s PositivismA Note on Dialectical LogicMediation3. Aspects of Adorno’s Method: Constellations and ImagesAdorno’s Bilderverbot and the Negation of Messianism4. Jazz, Radio and the MassesThe Masses and the Culture IndustriesThe Jazz EssaysMarx, Music and Relative AutonomyBlack Influence and Historical Materialist AnalysisRadio5. The masses and pro-fascist propagandaIrrationalism as the Basis of AnalysisLowenthal’s Anti-Fascist WritingsAdorno’s Study of Martin Luther ThomasThe Approach of Others to AntifascismIndeed, Efforts to Eliminate Discrimination are Necessarily Long-Term 6. Mediation7. Negative Dialectic, Identity and ExchangeNegative ThoughtThe Positive Moment in DialecticsIdentity and Identity ThinkingConcept and IdentityExchange8. ConclusionReferencesIndex

The agenda of Lanning in this work is to provide the conceptual evidence to substantiate Lukács’ implied accusation that exile in the US involved the abandonment on Adorno’s part of any authentic connection to the Marxist project of proletarian emancipation ... An invigorating and provocative read.”Sean Ledwith, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books