A discussion of “Jazz as Critique: Adorno and Black Expression Revisited” (Stanford University Press) by Fumi Okiji, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, UMass Amherst.

A sustained engagement with Theodor Adorno, "Jazz as Critique" looks to jazz for ways of understanding the inadequacies of contemporary life. In response to writing that portrays it as a mirror of American individualism and democracy, Fumi Okiji makes the case for jazz as a model of "gathering in difference." Noting that this mode of subjectivity emerged in response to the distinctive history of black America, she reveals that the music cannot but call the integrity of the world into question.

Cosponsored by the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst.