ADORNO, THEODOR W.

(1903–1969)

German sociologist and political thinker. Adorno was a leading member of the Frankfurt school, whose general stance he shared. His work belonged mainly to sociology, and was especially concerned with the contradictions and distortions imposed upon people by society. His best-known general work is The Authoritarian Personality (1950), describing the rigid, conformist personality-type, submissive to higher authority and bullying towards inferiors. Adorno's celebration of paradox and ambiguity has also been influential in postmodernist literary and cultural criticism.