Karla L. Schultz Boeken

The study traces a provocative, critical-utopian understanding of a term that has been central to Western aesthetics and is currently much debated. Conceived as an imitative, responsive move toward what is other, mimesis comes to life in Adorno's philosophy and permeates his critique of logo-centrism throughout. It does not concern the representation of objects but addresses an instinctive, frequently repressed relationship to them. Part defense mechanism, part erotic gesture, it is shaped by the Freudian notion of identification. The concept is delineated within the context of Dialectic of Enlightenment, several of Adorno's literary essays, and his Aesthetic Theory.

The Idea of the Forest is a collection of essays originally delivered at the University of Oregon during an interdisciplinary conference on the forest and its role in the political cultures of both Germany and North America. Contributions examine the forest as a site in the imagination as well as the focal point of current political, economic and ecological disputes.