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Adorno, De Martino and the Adventures of the Self

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Abstract

This article draws a comparison between the theories of Theodor W. Adorno and Ernesto De Martino, focusing in particular on two fundamental writings: The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) written by Adorno in collaboration with Max Horkheimer, and De Martino’s The World of Magic (1948). Both texts study the process of constitution of the autonomous subject, capable of controlling his own instincts and of dominating the external nature. The focal point of the article is, however, that both authors also reflect on the fact that the autonomous and rational subjectivity is not an irrevocable achievement: on the contrary, it is constantly exposed to the risk of regression and of a return into barbarism, as the totalitarian experiences of the last century have shown.

Translation by Eleonora Piromalli.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico (1948), new ed. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1997, English trans. P. Saye White, The World of Magic (New York: Pyramid Communications, 1972).

  2. 2.

    R. Solmi, Introduction to Th. W. Adorno, Minima moralia (Turin: Einaudi, 1954), p. LIII.

  3. 3.

    E. De Martino, Naturalismo e storicismo nell’etnologia [Naturalism and Historicism in Ethnology] (Bari: Laterza, 1941); new ed. Lecce: Argo, 1997.

  4. 4.

    E. De Martino, “Etnologia e cultura nazionale negli ultimi dieci anni” [Ethnology and National Culture in the Last Decade], Società, Vol. 9, no. 3 (1953): 313–341. See also “Promesse e minacce dell’etnologia”, in Furore Simbolo Valore (Milan: Il Saggiatore, 1962), p. 68.

  5. 5.

    See R. Pàstina, “Il concetto di presenza nel primo De Martino”, in Clara Gallini (ed.), Ernesto De Martino e la formazione del suo pensiero (Neapolis: Liguori, 2005), pp. 115–129.

  6. 6.

    See S. Barbera, “‘Presenza’ e ‘Mondo’. Modelli filosofici nell’opera di Ernesto De Martino”, in R. Di Donato (ed.), La contraddizione felice? Ernesto De Martino e gli altri (Pisa: ETS, 1990), pp. 103–127.

  7. 7.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 160, footnote 130 (my translation).

  8. 8.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, pp. 94–95.

  9. 9.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 128.

  10. 10.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 129.

  11. 11.

    M. Horkheimer and Th. W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. E. Jephcott (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), p. 6.

  12. 12.

    See P. Cherchi and M. Cherchi, Ernesto De Martino: Dalla crisi della presenza alla comunità umana (Neapolis: Liguori, 1987), p. 340 ff.

  13. 13.

    For a more extensive discussion of these themes, see my introduction to Th. W. Adorno, Interpretazione dell’Odissea (Rome: Manifestolibri, 2000), pp. 7–30.

  14. 14.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 161.

  15. 15.

    M. Horkheimer and Th. W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp. 5‚ 7.

  16. 16.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 158.

  17. 17.

    R. Solmi, “Ernesto De Martino e il problema delle categorie”, Il Mulino, Vol. 1, no. 7 (1952): 315–327.

  18. 18.

    C. Cases, Introduction to Il mondo magico, p. XXX ff.

  19. 19.

    B. Croce, “Intorno al magismo come età storica”, in B. Croce (ed.), Filosofia e storiografia (Bari: Laterza, 1949), pp. 193–208; now also reprinted as an appendix to E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 248.

  20. 20.

    E. De Martino, Preface to E. Durkheim, H. Hubert, and M. Mauss, Le origini dei poteri magici [The Origins of Magical Powers] (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1951).

  21. 21.

    As he did also in his subsequent book, Morte e pianto rituale nel mondo antico [Death and Ritual Lament in the Ancient World] (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1958); new edition with an introduction by Chiara Gallini (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2008).

  22. 22.

    G. Sasso, Ernesto De Martino fra religione e filosofia (Neapolis: Bibliopolis, 2001), p. 275.

  23. 23.

    I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, English trans. P. Guyer and A. W. Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 164.

  24. 24.

    M. Horkheimer and Th. W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, p. 26.

  25. 25.

    M. Horkheimer and Th. W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 189. See also S. Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), trans. J. Strachey (London and New York: Norton & Company, 1961), 30: “an instinct is an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things which the living entity has been obliged to abandon under the pressure of external disturbing forces”. This passage, cited by R. Caillois, Le mythe e l’homme (Paris: Gallimard, 1938), new ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1972, p. 75 is also quoted in De Martino, La fine del mondo, ed. C. Gallini (Turin: Einaudi, 1977), p. 227.

  26. 26.

    See R. Caillois, La mante religieuse: Recherche sur la nature et la signification du mythe (Paris: Aux Amis des Livres, 1937); Adorno’s review is in Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, Vol. 7, no. 3 (1938): 410–411.

  27. 27.

    E. De Martino, Il mondo magico, p. 111.

  28. 28.

    See P. Janet, L’automatisme psychologique (Paris: Alcan, 1889).

  29. 29.

    E. De Martino, La fine del mondo, pp. 75, 169, 226.

  30. 30.

    R. Caillois, Les jeux et les hommes (1958), English trans. M. Barash, Man, Play and Games (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1961).

  31. 31.

    E. De Martino, “Furore in Svezia”, in E. De Martino (ed.), Furore Simbolo Valore (Milan: Il Saggiatore, 1962), p. 165.

  32. 32.

    “Un secret acquiescement à l’abandon de la conscience et de la vie, ces conquêtes pesantes”, in R. Caillois (ed.), Le mythe e l’homme (Paris: Gallimard, 1972), p. 76.

  33. 33.

    E. De Martino, “Etnologia e cultura nazionale”, in R. Rauty (ed.), Cultura popolare e marxismo (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1976), p. 123.

References

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  1. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Stefano Petrucciani

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    Amirhosein Khandizaji

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Petrucciani, S. (2019). Adorno, De Martino and the Adventures of the Self. In: Khandizaji, A. (eds) Reading Adorno . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19048-4_2

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