Lectures on art, Marxism, and critical theory by the legendary philosopher, collected for the first time
Marxist Modernism is a comprehensive yet concise and conversational introduction to the Frankfurt School. It is also a new resource from one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers: Gillian Rose.
Her 1979 lectures on the Frankfurt School explore the lives and philosophies of a range of the school's members and affiliates, including Adorno, Lukács, Brecht, Bloch, Benjamin, and Horkheimer, and outline the way each theorist developed Marx's theory of commodity fetishism into a Marxist theory of culture.
Edited by Robert Lucas Scott and James Gordon Finlayson
"To read these lectures is to watch a great mind at work. Animated by her discovery of an incisive and socially relevant left-wing intellectual tradition, Rose approaches teaching by conveying that excitement - precisely the philosophical eros she would later extol. For readers familiar with Rose's rigorous and sometimes forbidding books, these lectures reveal an unexpected, intimate pedagogical side. Alongside her unique and pioneering reception of the Frankfurt School, we can see Rose's own singular contributions to political thought - her meditations on law, violence, the relationship between aesthetic imagination and social order - begin to find their grounds in her readings of, and arguments with, her predecessors." - London Review of Books
"A fierce vigilance of thought." - Guardian
"Writing wholly from within the tradition of modern European philosophy and social thought, Rose produced one of the most distinctive and original bodies of work of her generation." - Guardian
"[A] remarkable insight into one of the most brilliant philosophical and sociological minds of the late-20th century" - Theory, Culture & Society
"That a reader can now encounter Rose without the severe style is of course ironic, given the very arguments she makes here about form, but the lectures nevertheless have great propaedeutic value - just as they had with Hegel and Adorno. To be praised is the work of Robert Lucas Scott and James Gordon Finlayson in transcribing and editing them: their helpful annotations and perceptive introduction, together with Jay's afterword, now give us a fuller, more rounded picture of Rose's intellectual development." - Historical Materialism
"[A] remarkable insight into one of the most brilliant philosophical and sociological minds of the late-20th century" - Theory, Culture & Society
