MACMILLAN Siegfried Kracauer, or, The Allegories of Improvisation: Critical Studies (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)

This book analyses multiple facets of Kracauer’s work, comprehending the essayistic, narrative, philosophical, theoretical and critical writings, and putting special emphasis on some aspects: the phenomenology of metropolis, the theory of historiographic method, the reflections on the crisis of the subject and the emergence of a new subjectivity, the new forms of perception and aesthetic behaviour in late capitalism, the function of critic-intellectuals, the sociology of the middle classes, the theory of fascism, the aesthetical and sociological reflections on literary genres, the politicization of melancholy. An original feature of this book is the attention it pays to the links between Kracauer’s theoretical and critical writings and the traditions of heterodox Marxism, against a habitual tendency to obliterate the political (and emancipatory) dimension in the German author. Review Marxism is the blind spot of a significant number of recent works which, over the last couple of decades, have definitively canonized Siegfried Kracauer as one of the major representatives of 20 th century critical thought. Vedda’s book is a refreshing reaction against these mutilating interpretations. He convincingly proves that Marxism is the palimpsest of the entire oeuvre of Kracauer, and the key for understanding his connections with many contemporary thinkers, from Adorno, Benjamin, Löwenthal, and Bloch to Mayer Shapiro and Aby Warburg. Captivating and remarkably erudite, this study is an important landmark in Marxist scholarship.   ―Enzo Traverso, Cornell University, USA, and author of Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History and Memory (2017) From the Back Cover This book analyses multiple facets of Kracauer’s work, comprehending the essayistic, narrative, philosophical, theoretical and critical writings, and putting special emphasis on some aspects: the phenomenology of metropolis, the theory of historiographic method, the reflections on the crisis of the subject and the emergence of a new subjectivity, the new forms of perception and aesthetic behaviour in late capitalism, the function of critic-intellectuals, the sociology of the middle classes, the theory of fascism, the aesthetical and sociological reflections on literary genres, the politicization of melancholy. An original feature of this book is the attention it pays to the links between Kracauer’s theoretical and critical writings and the traditions of heterodox Marxism, against a habitual tendency to obliterate the political (and emancipatory) dimension in the German author. Miguel Vedda is Full Professor of the chair of German Literature at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Principal Researcher of the Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET).  About the Author Miguel Vedda is Full Professor of the chair of German Literature at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Principal Researcher of the Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET).