Antonio Candido and Roberto Schwarz. Co-edited with Nicholas Brown, Emilio Sauri and Thomas Waller.
ForthcomingBruna
Della Torre
My work explores the possibilities of dialectical cultural criticism today, bringing Critical Theory into conversation with literature, aesthetics, and politics. I approach cultural forms as historically mediated configurations through which social contradictions become legible.
Profile
Never merely
cultural.
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), Heidelberg University.
I received my PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo and held postdoctoral positions in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at USP and in Sociology at the State University of Campinas. I was a visiting scholar at Duke University (host: Fredric Jameson), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (host: Rahel Jaeggi), the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), and Goethe-Universität (host: Thomas Lemke), and a lecturer at Universidade de Brasília.
I am also a postdoctoral fellow of the International Herbert Marcuse Society. In 2023, I was awarded the Horkheimer Fellowship at the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt. My research brings cultural criticism into dialogue with the study of authoritarianism: from Brazilian modernism, literature, cinema and theatre to the digital culture industry, apocalyptic imagination and right-wing propaganda.
Horkheimer Fellowship
Institute for Social Research · Frankfurt am Main · 2023
The new
organization.
As the first Horkheimer Fellow at the IfS, I developed research on digital culture industry, social networks, and right-wing propaganda in Brazil, bringing a Marxist-feminist perspective from the periphery of capitalism to foundational questions of Critical Theory.
Books
Forms of
the periphery.
Monograph · Alameda · 2019
View book Edited collection · Verso · ForthcomingObjective Form and World Literature
Vanguarda do atraso ou atraso da vanguarda?
Oswald de Andrade e os teimosos destinos do Brasil
Selected work
Five open
constellations.
Frankfurt School
2026
Industria cultural, subjetividad y dominación: Adorno y el Proyecto RadioIn Theodor W. Adorno y la Teoría Crítica de la negatividad. Grupo de Teoría Crítica / ennnegativoEdiciones, pp. 175–226
2025Elisabeth Lenk, Theodor W. Adorno y las vanguardiasIn En las sombras de la tradición. Eterna Cadencia, pp. 175–194
2023Romance e reificação: Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno e Fredric JamesonAnuário Lukács 10, pp. 130–159
2023Indústria cultural: o conceito e sua atualidade em 7 tesesRevista do Centro de Pesquisa e Formação, pp. 176–193
2022Culture Industry, Subjectivity, and Domination: Adorno and the Radio ProjectMediations 35, pp. 3–34
2022Nicht mitmachen! and Weitermachen!: Rereading Adorno and Marcuse on Theory and PraxisWith Eduardo Altheman. Rethinking Marxism 34, pp. 63–80
2019Abaixo da superfície: Adorno e o cinema reconsideradoNovos Estudos CEBRAP 38, pp. 477–493
2019Adorno, leitor de MarxSociologia & Antropologia 9, pp. 519–541
2018Socialização e dominação: a Escola de Frankfurt e a culturaWith Eduardo Altheman. Tempo Social 30, pp. 123–141
2016Em rota de colisão: Adorno, Marcuse e os movimentos estudantisIdeias 7, pp. 37–57
Brazilian Critical Theory and Literary Criticism
2024
The Position of the Narrator in the Peripheral Novel: Roberto Schwarz, Machado de Assis, and the Problem of RealismIn Roberto Schwarz and World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 219–235
2023Roberto Schwarz, Machado de Assis e o problema do realismoLetterature d’America 195, pp. 63–84
2024Mais uma vez, ainda, ‘Cultura e Política, 1964–1969’In Ensaios sobre Roberto Schwarz. UEPB, pp. 219–244
2022Dos veces cultura y políticaIn Diálogos Sur-Sur. Universitaria, pp. 161–182
2020Abra-te Sésamo: a teoria crítica de Gabriel CohnSociologia & Antropologia 10, pp. 449–465
2019Modelos críticos: Antonio Candido e Roberto Schwarz leem Oswald de AndradeRevista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros 74, pp. 178–196
Realism, Modernism and Avant-Gardes
2024
Anthropophagia and Those Twenties in Brazil: Good Old Days or Bad New Ones?FormA 2, pp. 1–35
2024At the Heart of the Impossible: Walter Benjamin, Marcel Proust and La RechercheAisthesis 76, pp. 84–104
2023Macunaíma: la epopeya negativa de Mário de AndradeIn Las fracturas del mármol. CLACSO / La Habana Editorial, pp. 159–183
2022Aquellos años veinte en Brasil: good old days or bad new ones?Revista Chilena de Literatura 106, pp. 285–316
2019Karl Marx na metrópole do capitalWith Vladimir Puzone. In Vitorianos: contradições e desdobramentos. LiberArs, pp. 59–78
2016Eles devoraram tudo: primitivismo, barbárie e as vanguardasRevista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros 64, pp. 296–309
2015Benjamin leitor de Brecht: cinema e distanciamentoPandaemonium Germanicum, pp. 37–52
2012Desventuras da subversão: Oswald de Andrade, o Teatro Oficina e os dois momentos de O Rei da VelaProa 4, pp. 85–99
Platform Capitalism and Fascism
2025
Unidimensionalidad en el siglo XXI: racionalidad tecnocapitalista, industria cultural digital y postmodernidad de plataformasConstelaciones 17, pp. 390–406
2024Plattform-Neofaschismus: digitale Kulturindustrie und die extreme Rechte heuteWestEnd 21, pp. 31–52
2025Twenty-First-Century One-Dimensionality: Big Technological Rationality, Digital Culture Industry, and Platform PostmodernityIn The Marcusean Mind. Routledge, pp. 510–521
2023Classe ou massa? Freud, Adorno e MarxIn Marx 200 Anos. Zouk
2020Com quantos paus se faz uma canoa? Notas sobre a personalidade autoritáriaCrítica Marxista 50, pp. 103–110
Interviews
Critical
encounters.
2023
100 anos do Instituto de Pesquisa Social: Interview with Martin JayWith Eduardo Altheman. Cadernos de Filosofia Alemã 28(3), pp. 111–124
2023Interview with Nancy FraserWith Nathalie Bressiani. Margem Esquerda 41, pp. 11–35
2022The Holy Family: Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism in the Current Far Right — Interview with Melinda CooperCultural Dynamics 34(3), pp. 242–250
2020Interview with Cinzia Arruzza and Tithi BhattacharyaCrítica Marxista 51, pp. 147–160
2020Neo-Backwardness in Bolsonaro’s Brazil — Interview with Roberto SchwarzNew Left Review 123, pp. 25–38
2019Weiterdenken: An Interview with Michael SchwarzWith Fernando Bee. Dissonância 3, pp. 342–351
2020Os labirintos de Marx: Interview with Michael HeinrichCrítica Marxista 50, pp. 275–288
2017Escola de Frankfurt, Foucault e o neoliberalismo: Interview with Thomas LemkeWith Eduardo Altheman. Tempo Social 29(1), pp. 305–313
Cultural criticism
Reading culture
from within.
2021
Dialética da desumanizaçãoSociologia & Antropologia 11, pp. 195–199
2019Crítica da tragédia, crítica da farsa: Roda Viva pelo Teatro OficinaRevista Café com Sociologia 8, pp. 14–25
2016Criticism and Condescension: The Triumph of the Poor in The Second MotherLatin American Perspectives 43, pp. 141–143
2023Culture Industry: A (Political) Research Agenda for Critical TheoryGlobal Dialogue 13(3)
2019Teoria, política e história: um debate com E. P. ThompsonReview of Perry Anderson. Crítica Marxista 49, pp. 175–177
2018Walter Benjamin: uma biografiaReview of Bernd Witte. Crítica Marxista 47, pp. 209–211
2018A teoria crítica na ordem do dia: Horkheimer hojeWith Eduardo Altheman. Review of Max Horkheimer’s Eclipse da Razão. Plural 25(1), pp. 265–271
2013A escuta sociológica da arte: música e crítica da sociedade em AdornoReview of Theodor W. Adorno’s Introdução à Sociologia da Música. Ideias 4(2), pp. 161–168
Public engagement
Writing against
the given.
I write a monthly column for the blog of Latin America’s largest progressive publishing house, addressing politics, literary criticism, feminism, cinema, and contemporary cultural forms.
Monthly columnBlog da
Boitempo
Boitempo
2025Imediatez e autoficção: a literatura sob o capitalismo de plataforma2025A imaginação apocalíptica2025“O último Azul”, de Gabriel Mascaro2024“Anatomia de uma queda”, de Justine Triet2024[Feminismo em Weimar?] Irmgard Keun e a consciência de pária2023Elena Ferrante e o realismo feminista2023Barbie: apocalipse em pink
Elsewhere
Magazines, newspapers
and other media.
2026
The Politics of the Family: Representing State Violence in CinemaBerliner Gazette
2026Military Dictatorship in Brazil, Armed Resistance, and the Political UnconsciousBerliner Gazette
2024No Road Map for Critical Theory: An Introductory Guide to the Frankfurt SchoolInternational Herbert Marcuse Society
2024Theses for the Social Media Age: Why Platform Neofascism Will Bring About the Techno-ApocalypseBerliner Gazette
2022Por que o marxismo precisa ser feministaWith Daniela Costanzo and Isabella Meucci · Revista Cult
2022The Setback of Women’s Rights in Bolsonaro’s BrazilWashington Brazil Office
2018Atualidade do pensamento de Marx é tema de debates na USPJornal da USP
2018Roberto Schwarz reflete sobre quatro tentativas de modernização do BrasilWith Mónica González García · Folha de S.Paulo
Documentary film
Douglas Kellner Archive Project · 2025
Mapping the Spectacle:
The Douglas Kellner Archive
Douglas Kellner Archive Project
Watch on YouTube © International Herbert Marcuse SocietyTeaching
Theory as a
collective practice.
Teaching across sociology, literary theory and philosophy, with an emphasis on close reading, historical constellations and the relation between aesthetic form and social experience.
Collective work
Marxismo
Feminista.
I am a founding member of Coletiva Marxismo Feminista, a collective dedicated to Marxist-feminist debate, public education and political intervention in Brazil.
Visit the collectiveCurriculum vitae
Full Academic CV