The Search for Style

Abstract

It is impossible to understand Adorno’s ideas without understanding the ways in which he presents them, that is, his style, and without understanding the reasons for his preoccupation with style. It is, however, Adorno’s theory of society which determines his style, and that theory can only be understood if one knows how to read his texts. This chapter is concerned with the relationship between Adorno’s ideas and their heterogeneous presentation; the subsequent chapters are concerned with the grounding of the ideas. The glossary included at the end of the book may be consulted at this stage for a protreptic account of terms mentioned in this chapter. Adorno explicates his style most fully in the essay Der Essay als Form (The Essay as Form),¹ and in the book Minima Moralia.² It is in these that his engagement with Nietzsche is most evident. Much of Adorno’s critique of philosophy and of sociology is drawn from his reception of Nietzsche’s philosophy.