The Possibility of the Impossible (Vol. I)

The first volume of Adorno. The Possibility of the Impossible comprises theoretical essays which investigate the relevance of Adorno’s critical theory for the present. The tight connection between individual observations in aesthetics and cultural criticism, on the one hand, and the large speculations of social theory and the history of philosophy, on the other, that is found in Adorno’s own work is taken as a point of departure in many passages. The difference – disparity, even – in the varied attitudes toward the content of Adorno’s theory is evident. Seen from the perspective of the present, this multiple rereading is directed at fragments of a thought that has preserved its radicality even when abstracted from its immediate historical context. Both publications – Adorno. The Impossibility of the Impossible Vol. I and Vol. II – accompany an exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Theodor W. Adorno.