Date of Award

6-15-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, English and Literary Arts

First Advisor

Graham Foust

Second Advisor

R. D. Perry

Third Advisor

Clark Davis

Fourth Advisor

Sarah Pessin

Keywords

Adorno, Lyric, Poetry, Frankfurt school, Aesthetics, Critical theory

Abstract

This dissertation consists of two distinct parts. The first investigates the theory of the lyric in the work of Theodor W. Adorno. The second entails an engagement with that theory through a collection of original lyric poems. The three case studies of the critical apparatus track how it is that Adorno’s conception of the lyric serves as a metonymic cipher for his work as a whole, one which reemphasizes and remediates several key concepts in his thinking.

After a brief introduction, the first of these chapters approaches Adorno’s notion of the subject-object dialectic through the lens of his own attempts at writing lyric poetry. The second addresses the metaphysical remainder in Adorno’s materialist philosophy alongside the wartime poetics of Wallace Stevens, paying special attention to Adorno’s famous dictum against poetry after Auschwitz. The third chapter attempts to outline the appearance of a paradoxical “inverse” theology at the heart of Adorno’s thinking by reading it through the lyric of Ingeborg Bachmann.

As a kind of master star map to the constellation herein, both this suite of investigations and the poems that follow pay special attention to figures of thought which aporically survives their own negation, historically, theoretically, and poetically.

Copyright Date

6-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. This work may only be accessed by members of the University of Denver community. The work is provided by permission of the author for individual research purposes only and may not be further copied or distributed. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

George Kovalenko

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

155 pgs

File Size

772 KB

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