Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment

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"Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment" is a key philosophical essay by Adorno and Horkheimer that interprets the figure of Odysseus as embodying the ambivalent relationship between myth and rationality in modern enlightenment thought.

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf chapter
philosophical essay
analyzesEpisode Odysseus and Polyphemus
Odysseus and the Sirens
argumentSummary Enlightenment rationality emerges from myth but also reproduces mythic domination in a new form
Odysseus exemplifies the split between commanding subject and subjugated body
The cunning of Odysseus anticipates the calculative, instrumental reason of modern society
author Max Horkheimer
Theodor W. Adorno
centralConcept identity of myth and enlightenment
renunciation
sacrifice
self-preservation
conceptualPair freedom and domination
myth and rationality
subject and object
critiques bourgeois rationality
instrumentalization of reason
discipline literary criticism
philosophy
social theory
hasInfluenceOn contemporary literary theory
critical theory of culture
philosophy of the enlightenment
influencedBy German idealism
Marxism
psychoanalysis
interpretsCharacterAs figure of self-preservation through cunning
prototype of the modern bourgeois individual
interpretsWork Homer's Odyssey
language German
mainCharacter Odysseus
originalPublicationContext exile of the authors in the United States during World War II
partOf Dialectic of Enlightenment
philosophicalSchool Frankfurt School
philosophicalTradition Critical Theory
linked to: Critical theory
publicationYear 1944
relatedConcept enlightenment reverts to mythology
myth as already enlightenment
settingOfAnalysis ancient Greek epic
theme ambivalence of enlightenment
bourgeois subjectivity
domination of nature
enlightenment
instrumental reason
myth
rationality

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Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Dialectic of Enlightenment hasPart Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment
Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment argumentSummary Odysseus exemplifies the split between commanding subject and subjugated body
linked to: Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment