Editors’ Introduction. Theodor W. Adorno: Between Critical Receptivity and Spontaneous Openness

This first issue of the Journal of Adorno Studies introduces many members of the community of colleagues and scholars that comprise the journal’s editorial committee and board. In the thematic section, “Kaleidoscopics,” we reflect on the contemporary significance of Adorno’s work from a host of different viewpoints, offered by short, partly aphoristic essays. The term “Kaleidoscopics” gestures towards Adorno’s penchant for the “aesthetic telescopes” of nature, which he experienced through the haptic toys of his childhood. The image of the kaleidoscope also constitutes a visual counterpart to the musical stuctures of repetition and variation. It serves as a fitting metaphor for the constellation of essays included in this volume, which, while varying in lengths and styles, correspond with each other to create an image of our peculiar moment of time and the state of critical theory. The essays address, inter alia, the ongoing importance of Adorno’s psychoanalytically-informed critique of culture, language, art, and aesthetics, as well as questions of identity-thinking, the accelerating ecological catastrophe, and the enduring power of utopic moments of metaphysical thinking, however fragile.