Authoritarianism and Child's Play in T. W. Adorno's Der Schatz des Indianer-Joe

Theodor Adorno wrote Der Schatz des Indianer-Joe, a singspiel adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in 1932–33. Adorno developed his critical stance towards popular entertainment's totalitarian tendencies through an engagement with childhood nostalgia. Adorno and Walter Benjamin both responded to the National Socialist rise to power by describing childhood experiences in which they apparently overcame the authority of their parents and teachers through fantasy stories. These experiences were comforting but illusory, as their allusions to popular Indianergeschichten suggest. Reading Schatz in the context of the Indianergeschichte genre reveals a cautionary tale against the blinding dangers of comforting fantasy narratives. In Adorno's retelling, Tom Sawyer's self-aggrandizing adventure games provide him a specious feeling of power while blinding him to society's oppression of the marginalized. The article concludes by arguing that Adorno's “Tom” project was a key moment in his development as a critical theoretician.