O corpo e sua ambivalência histórica na Dialética do esclarecimento de Adorno e Horkheimer

Verlaine Freitas

doi:10.32334/oqnfp.2025n57a1045

PDF (Português (Brasil))

Published: Dec 30, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32334/oqnfp.2025n57a1045

Keywords:

Body, Consumption, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialetic of Enlightenment

Verlaine Freitas

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0333-9416

Abstract

The article offers an analysis of affective ambiguity regarding the body as conceived in Dialectic of Enlightenment by Adorno and Horkheimer. The idea of love-hate toward the body is interpreted within the horizon of a historical dialectic marked by a strong ambivalence in personal identity, in the bond between intellect and body. We aim to develop the argument in support of the hypothesis that the sexual image in mass culture is also an index of a love-hate relationship with the body, drawing on the concept of catharsis.

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 57 (2025): Beyond Dualism: Configurations of the Body in Modernity

Section

Articles

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Copyright Notice

The author of the article or book reviews submitted and approved for publication authorizes the editors to reproduce it and publish it in the journal O que nos faz pensar, with the terms “reproduction” and “publication” being understood in accordance with the definitions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. The article or book reviews may be accessed both via the World Wide Web – Internet (WWW – Internet), and in printed form, its being permitted, free of charge, to consult and reproduce the text for the personal use of whoever consults it. This authorization of publication has no time limit, with the editors of the journal O que nos faz pensar being responsible for maintaining the identification of the author of the article.

Author Biography

Verlaine Freitas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

He holds a bachelor’s degree (1994), a master’s degree (1996), and a Ph.D. (2001) in Philosophy from the Federal University of Minas Gerais; he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Windsor, Canada (2011). He is currently a Full Professor at UFMG and a researcher at CNPq. He is the author of the books *Refractions: Essays on Adorno’s Aesthetics* and *Adorno and Contemporary Art*, as well as the editor of other works on aesthetics. He has translated texts by German and English-language authors, the most notable being the books *Essays on Social Psychology and Psychoanalysis* and *Early Philosophical Writings*, both containing texts by Theodor Adorno. His work focuses primarily on the themes of aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and mass culture, drawing on the works of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Theodor Adorno.

References

ADORNO, T. W. Ästhetische Theorie. Gesammelte Schriften, vol.7, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.

ADORNO, T. W. & HORKHEIMER, M. Dialektik der Aufklärung. Philosophische Fragmente. In: ADORNO, T. W. Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 3. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.

ARISTÓTELES. Poética. Tradução de Eudoro de Souza. São Paulo: Abril Cultural, 1984.

BAUDRILLARD, J. La société de consommation. Ses mythes, ses structures. Paris: Denoël, 1970.

BEAUVOIR, S. Le deuxième sexe. I Les faits et les mythes. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1976.

BENJAMIN, W. Über den Begriff der Geschichte. In: Gesammelte Schriften, vol., Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.

BORGES, T F. Interesse pelo corpo na Dialética do esclarecimento de Theodor W. Adorno e Max Horkheimer. Dissertação. 2010.

DAVIS, M. The Poetry of Philosophy. On Aristotle’s Poetics. South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 1992.

DUARTE, R. Mimesis e racionalidade. Belo Horizonte: Loyola, 1985.

DUARTE, R. Indústria cultural. Uma introdução. Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 2010.

FREUD, S. Das Unbehagen in der Kultur. In: Gesammelte Werke. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1999.

GRUBER, A. Leiblichkeit und Triebbegriff. Zum Schicksal des Körpers im poststrukturalistischen Dekonstruktivismus. In: KIRCHHOFF, C & SEHRIEDER, F. (Org.) Freud und Adorno. Zur Urgeschichte der Moderne. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, pp.63-90, 2005 .

JAY, M. Adorno. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.

KIEPFER, D. Individualität nach Adorno. Tübingen: Francke, 1998.

LAPLANCHE, Jean. Vida e morte em psicanálise. Cleonice Paes Barreto Mourão e Consuelo Fortes Santiago. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, 1985.

LAPLANCHE, Jean. O filogenético. In: _____. Novos fundamentos para a psicanálise. Tradução de Cláudia Berliner. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, pp.32-41, 1992, .

LEE, L. Y. Dialectics of the Body. Corporeality in the Philosophy of T.W Adorno. New York & London: Routledge, 2005.

SCHULTZE, L. Körperlichkeit bei Adorno. Eine Bestimmung anhand des Begriffs der Selbsterhaltung. Soziologiemagazin, v.12, n.2, p. 38-55, 2023.