The Frankfurt School resists simple classification as a precursor to postmodernism

Evidence

It would be mistaken, of course, to reduce the legacy of Critical Theory tout court to a prolegomenon to postmodernism, however we may define that vexed term. Habermas’s spirited defense of the uncompleted project of modernity,” Lowenthal’s last warnings against “irrational and neomythological” concepts like “post-histoire,"" and Adorno’s insistence on the distinction between high and low art and partisanship for modernists such as Beckett, Kafka and Schoenberg against the leveling impact of the Culture Industry, all make it plain that in many important ways the Frankfurt School resists wholesale inclusion among the forebears of postmodernism. In fact, as Fredric Jameson has pointed out, it may well be the eclectic pastiches of Stravinsky (which Adorno despised) rather than the progressive innovations of Schoenberg (which he generally admired) that can he said to have anticipated a key feature of postmodernist culture.” — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 21

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Fredric Jameson’s theory of postmodernism as pastiche and to the broader postmodernism debate over critical theory. — connects to: The Frankfurt School’s rejection of teleological progress anticipates postmodernism’s abandonment of meta-narratives; Postmodernity is defined by the delegitimation of metanarratives — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 65; Postmodernism is a tendency within late modernism, not its successor — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 236 (+3 more)
• SEED: Possible essay angle: Adorno’s rejection of Stravinsky’s pastiche as an unexpected early diagnosis of postmodernist culture.

Broader Connections

• The Frankfurt School’s rejection of teleological progress anticipates postmodernism’s abandonment of meta-narratives #complicates (0.85)
• Postmodernism is a tendency within late modernism, not its successor #qualifies (0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 236
• Certain modernist precursors already contained what became postmodern #complicates (0.80)
• Postmodernity is defined by the delegitimation of metanarratives #complicates (0.75) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 65