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The Correspondence(S) Of Benjamin And Adorno, Jeremy W. Arnott

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis develops the concept of ‘correspondence’ as a means by which to read the work of Benjamin and Adorno. The term will be taken to entail at once explicit correspondence, in the sense of the letters written to each other (1928-1940), alongside the implicit constellations structuring their relationship. Beginning with Benjamin’s early writings (-1924), I will trace the development of Benjamin’s immanent method of criticism, followed by Adorno’s re-direction (or appropriation) of this method towards his own Marxist concerns, and notions of ‘critical theory.’ This will be shown as a ‘translation’ of Benjamin’s early work, in which Adorno’s re-direction …