Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2021

 

Literary Criticism as a Method-An Experimental Interpretation of Adorno’s “Inner Criticism”

(Abstract)

 

Zhao Yong

 

Adorno’s inner criticism was born in the historical context of post-war reconstruction and“failed culture,” and is a continuation of the Hegelian-Marxist tradition of inner criticism, as well as a product of the guiding ideology of “critical theory” of the Frankfurt School. The main method of inner criticism is to emphasize the inner nature and to refuse to apply social concepts from the outside to the work. The main method of inner criticism is to start from the form of the work and analyze the form internally, and then decipher the social code, from the surface to the inside, and from the inside to the outside. This is the ideal vision of inner criticism, which expects cultural criticism and literary criticism to become the art of viewing society. This kind of critical discourse, viewed from a philosophical perspective, embodies an ambition to “change the world”; viewed from the perspective of literature and art, it is an unremitting effort to “explain the world.” Through his own critical practice, Adorno has perfectly put inner criticism into practice.