Heine's Aesthetics of Dissonance

Abstract

This article examines the role that Heine's articulation and performance of a dissonant aesthetics plays in the formation of Adorno's Critical Theory. Reading Heine and Adorno side by side, this article argues for a reevaluation of the standard view that Adorno followed the majority opinion of relegating Heine to the B list. Instead, recognition of the critical move Adorno makes in an early but widely ignored American paper, “Towards a Reappraisal of Heine,” of 1948/49 calls for a new approach to the canonical reading of Adorno's later “Heine the Wound.” Rereading Adorno with attention to his sensibility for dissonance demonstrates how Adorno's own reading of Heine attends to the critically redemptive moment in Heine and its significance for Critical Theory.