ABSTRACT
Adorno’s more than four-decade-long reception of the philosophical legacy of Søren Kierkegaard is a story of a highly productive encounter which affected many different areas of Adorno’s thought. After an early acquaintance with Kierkegaard, Adorno undertook an extensive reading of the German edition of Kierkegaard’s oeuvre, familiarized himself with contemporary Kierkegaard literature, and joined the public discourse on Kierkegaard with the controversial monograph Kierkegaard. Konstruktion des Ästhetischen in 1933. Adorno carried on a dialogue about Kierkegaard with a number of influential German and international scholars and popularized Kierkegaard’s thought not just in the philosophical community, but also in sociological, musicological, and literary circles. The present study attempts to outline the rough chronology and the main themes of this rich reception, focusing primarily on philosophical issues while indicating also Adorno’s other uses of Kierkegaard.
