In Search of Wagner keyword-colonial-history dissections and critiques of the

dissections and critiques of the ideology of ‘humanitarian warfare’

Teresa Ghilarducci

English PEN exists to promote literature and its understanding

Based on his recent lectures

In Search of Wagner keyword-colonial-history dissections and critiques of theWritten in exile from Germany, this potent study of Europes most controversial composer explodes the frontiers of musical and cultural analysis. Measuring key elements of Wagners oeuvre with patent musical dexterity, Adorno sheds light on a nineteenth century bourgeois figure whose operas betray the social gestures and high culture fantasies that helped plant the seeds of the modern Culture Industry. A foreword by Slavoj iek situates Adornos