Aesthetic Uses of Psychoanalysis in Theodor W. Adorno’s ‘Notes on Kafka’

Abstract

This article argues that for Theodor W. Adorno psychoanalysis illuminates the nature of literary interpretation. Particularly, Adorno’s metacriticism defines the interpretative procedures of literature and some affinities between the aims of literary and psychoanalytic interpretations. However, his arguments do not rest on a ‘top-down’ analysis but on a ‘bottom-up’ one. So, this article also argues that Adorno’s interest in Franz Kafka’s œuvre focuses on literary criticism and defends some theses on metacriticism. Nevertheless, for Adorno, interpreting literature implies switching the reader’s attention from ordinary meaning understanding to aesthetic appreciation. In this respect, my article finally argues that what Adorno called (literary) ‘gestures’ works as the resource for metacriticism, analogous to Freudian slips.