What do Edgar Allen Poe, Theodor Adorno, György Lukács, and John Dos Passos have in common? All four writers understand the prevailing logic of art to be one of formal subordination. That is, they all believe that the work of art produces “a resolution that will make what we already know worth knowing.” This logic organizes the form and content of Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy, a seemingly open text that, in Godek-Kiryluk’s reading, closely aligns with both Poe’s theory of composition and Lukács’s…
Read moreWhat do Edgar Allen Poe, Theodor Adorno, György Lukács, and John Dos Passos have in common? All four writers understand the prevailing logic of art to be one of formal subordination. That is, they all believe that the work of art produces “a resolution that will make what we already know worth knowing.” This logic organizes the form and content of Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy, a seemingly open text that, in Godek-Kiryluk’s reading, closely aligns with both Poe’s theory of composition and Lukács’s desire for immanent critique.
