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A collection of Adorno's essays, "Cultural Industry and Society," returns to bookstores with a new graphic design. "One volume of Adorno's work is equivalent to a whole bookshelf of books on literature." – Susan Sontag
Analyzing and understanding the organization and manifestation of culture within the development of capitalism was one of the driving forces behind the thinking of the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno. And, undoubtedly, the extent of this eloquence, which is confined to the industrial pace of cultural production—always rapid, harsh, pasteurized, and "soulless," according to Adorno—is open to criticism under any political, economic, and ideological regime.
One of the leading figures of the Frankfurt School—a group responsible for a series of critically grounded social and philosophical readings—Adorno, a descendant of Jews, a Kantian scholar, and lover of the arts (especially music), was forced to flee Germany during the Jewish and socialist persecution. During his exile in the United States, his interest in the intertwining of technology, culture, and consumption led to the work "Dialectic of Enlightenment ," co-written with Max Horkheimer, in which the concept of the culture industry first appears.
The term, used as an update of the idea of mass culture, refers to the ideas of domination, diffusion and speed with which culture, entertainment and fun are treated and offered by capitalism to worker-consumers, who, at the end of the day, find only the same old thing, the eternal repetition of the past.
In this new edition of Cultural Industry and Society , readers will find three important essays by Theodor Adorno, selected by University of São Paulo professor Jorge de Almeida: "Cultural Industry: The Enlightenment as Mystification of the Masses," "Cultural Criticism and Society," and "Free Time."
Written between 1947 and 1969—the year of the author's death—these texts present his central ideas about the impoverishment of experience, the devaluation of leisure, and artistic development. By discussing the primary media outlets of his time—radio and cinema—Adorno opens doors that allow us to understand cultural, artistic, and entertainment manifestations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Through these classic essays on the philosophy of communication and aesthetics, we can understand and question the current implications and impositions of ideology and technology. If until now we have been faced with the same old, same old, this book will allow us to reflect on and modify the pseudoculture of the cultural industry.
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