ABSTRACT
If there is a gravitational pull that constitutes the "shared work" of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, it most surely involves the explication of artistic works in such a way as to show how they reflect the unjust character of modern life. Writing to Benjamin in 1934, Adorno held that each sentence of such an exposition needs to be "laden with political dynamite". Critical theory—as Adorno and Benjamin practiced it—thus stands or falls on the capacity for works to be read "against the grain"; failing this criterion, both the artistic works and the critical practice that focuses on them are simply complicit in unjust life. There is nothing a priori problematic about this; neither Adorno nor Benjamin approach artistic subjects systematically or with the aim to present a total picture of the relation of art to society. In 1929, Benjamin published a self-proclaimed "hostile" essay on his work and gave a radio broadcast in which he read Walser's works.
