Heine and Critical Theory - by Willi Goetschel (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Heinrich Heine's role in the formation of Critical Theory has been systematically overlooked in the course of the successful appropriation of his thought by Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, and the legacy they left, in particular for Adorno, Benjamin and the Frankfurt School. This book examines the critical connections that led Adorno to call for a "reappraisal" of Heine in a 1948 essay that, published posthumously, remains under-examined.

Tracing Heine's Jewish difference and its liberating comedy of irreverence in the thought of the Frankfurt School, the book situates the project of Critical Theory in the tradition of a praxis of critique, which Heine elevates to the art of public controversy. Heine's bold linking of aesthetics and political concerns anticipates the critical paradigm assumed by Benjamin and Adorno. Reading Critical Theory with Heine recovers a forgotten voice that has theoretically critical significance for the formation of the Frankfurt School.

With Heine, the project of Critical Theory can be understood as the sustained effort to advance the emancipation of the affects and the senses, at the heart of a theoretical vision that recognizes pleasure as the liberating force in the fight for freedom.

Review Quotes

[Author Willi Goetschel] provides Heine studies with numerous trenchant and provocative commentaries, and he forces scholars of Critical Theory to reconsider its origins, its indebtedness to Jewish tradition, and its relationship to one of the greatest literary figures of the nineteenth century.
Monatshefte

[A] lucidly far-sighted and impeccably researched account ... [A] labor of love as of longform library research, written, in the spirit of its profoundly admired subject, with an exquisitely unpretentious, seductively light touch ... The summit of Goetschel's incisive interpretive thinking and prodigious scholarship to date.
The Germanic Review

[This] is one of the most comprehensive and powerful accounts of Heine's philosophical significance published in English.
H-Judaic

About the Author

Willi Goetschel is Professor of German and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada.