In these probing, eloquent, and sometimes lacerating essays, Adornos continuing fascination with the rhinoceros is the occasion for commentary on his claim that art, at least now, emerges as the stand-in for an absent nature, for a nature facing extinction. A surprising and demanding addition to both Adorno studies, and human reflection on art and the approaching disaster. * J.M. Bernstein, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, USA *
Taking Adornos enduring interest in the enigmatic rhinoceros as its starting point, this volume gives us a multi-faceted exploration of crucial dialectics in Adornos thought, from the place of artworks in the dialectic of culture and nature to the distance between language and selfhood and the utopian promise in animals. * Shierry Weber Nicholsen, Psychoanalyst in private practice, USA *
Adornos Rhinoceros is a modern day bestiary of a single and singular animal, whose presence in art and culture stands in stark contrast to its imminent absence from the natural world. At once a marvelous collection of essays, and a collection of marvelous essays, each chapter has an intriguingly tight focus on one motif in Adorno's philosophy, and one line of his Aesthetic Theory. Yet the essays radiate into the diverse topics of 'dumb' animal nature, of the enigmatic nature of artworks and their muteness, and explore philosophical questions of selfhood, transcendence, metaphysics and secularization. * Gordon Finlayson, Professor of Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex, UK *
Centring on the enigmatic image of the rhinoceros, this brilliant volume of essays by established and emerging scholars explores how Adorno's bestiary dialectically configures an anticipation of the as yet unrealized promise of culture as well as the memory trace of its catastrophic failure. * Samir Gandesha, Professor of Humanities and Director of the Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada *
