The Melancholy Science is Gillian Rose's investigation into Theodor Adorno's work and legacy. Rose uncovers the unity discernable among the many fragments of Adorno's oeuvre, and argues that his influence has been to turn Marxism into a search for style. The attempts of Adorno, Lukacs and Benjamin to develop a Marxist theory of culture centred on the concept of reification are contrasted, and the ways in which the concept of reification has come to be misused are exposed. Adorno's continuation for his own time of the Marxist critique of philosophy is traced through his writings on Hegel, Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger. His opposition to the separation of philosophy and sociology is shown by examination of his critique of Durkheim and Weber, and of his contributions to the dispute over positivism, his critique of empirical social research and his own empirical sociology.
Gillian Rose shows Adorno's most important contribution to be his founding of a Marxist aesthetic that offers a sociology of culture, as demonstrated in his essays on Kafka, Mann, Beckett, Brecht and Schoenberg. Finally, Adorno's 'Melancholy Science' is revealed to offer a 'sociology of illusion' that rivals both structural Marxism and phenomenological sociology as well as the subsequent work of the Frankfurt School.

"A fierce vigilance of thought." -Guardian

About the Author
Gillian Rose was a British philosopher and sociologist. She is the author of The Melancholy Science, Paradiso, Mourning Becomes the Law, The Broken Middle, Dialectic of Nihilism, Hegel Contra Sociology and Love's Work.

Reviews
If her mind could be characterised by a phrase it would be something along the lines of: a fierce vigilance of thought. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *



Book Information
ISBN 9781781681527
Author Gillian Rose
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 320g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 22mm