Adorno read poems as historical records of society’s contradictions

Evidence

His view was that interpreting a poem in social terms meant reading it as a sundial of the philosophy of history'; as a manifestation of the whole of a society, as a unity containing contradictions, within the work of art’; as an expression of the `historical relationship … between the individual and society within the medium of the subjective … mind’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2221

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Adorno’s ZfS essays and the Wittgenstein reading of poetry-as-philosophical-analysis; resonates with the reader’s broader Critical Theory reference work. — connects to: Adorno read the naive poet Mörike as a knowing virtuoso of a dying sublimity — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2223; Socio-historical reading can locate a poem’s moment of composition in society — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2222; Adorno’s concept-object slippage reflects society’s real objective contradictions, not careless theorizing — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 689 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does Adorno’s `sundial of the philosophy of history’ formula differ from Lukács’s historicization of aesthetics he drew on?

Broader Connections

• Adorno read lyric poems as recordings of a historical moment of loss #corroborates (0.92) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2222