Introduction: The Art of Reading | 1
1. Adorno and the Uncoercive Gaze | 17
2. Buried Possibility: Adorno and Arendt on Tradition | 39
3. The Inheritance of the Constellation: Adorno and Hegel | 70
4. Judging by Refraining from Judgment: Adorno's Artwork and Its Einordnung | 95
5. The Literary Artwork between Word and Concept: Adorno and Agamben Reading Kafka | 115
6. The Artwork without Cardinal Direction: Notes on Orientation in Adorno | 131
7. False Life, Living On: Adorno with Derrida | 144
Conclusion: A Kind of Leave-Taking | 161
Acknowledgments | 167
Notes | 169
Index | 203

This book argues that the work of Theodor W. Adorno is best understood through the lens of his highly suggestive-yet often overlooked-concept of the "uncoercive gaze," an innovative way of relating to the object of one's analysis that interweaves critical intimacy and analytic vigilance.

Gerhard Richter is Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at Brown University. His most recent books include Inheriting Walter Benjamin and Afterness: Figures of Following in Modern Thought and Aesthetics.