Theodor Adorno and Life Writing in the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT This essay argues for the relevance of Theodor Adorno to life writing in the Anthropocene. His view of instrumental reason predicted the despoliation of the earth. His own memoir, Minima Moralia, radically decentred the individual voice by proclaiming its hopeless entanglement in exchange values. His negative dialectics reconceived Cartesian Dualism and destabilised relational models of life narration. Adorno’s view of memory contested its objectification, and his memoir includes few incidents from his life. Instead, Adorno creates dense ‘thought images’ that ponder the predicaments of living in a disastrous time. He never hid his elitism but carefully explored its limitations and hypocrisies. His pessimism alienates more hopeful sensibilities, but he never demanded allegiance to his philosophy, only a consideration of its accusations.