On Dissonance and Late Style: Spenser with Theodor W. Adorno

This essay makes a case for a reassessment of The Faerie Queene in light of Adorno’s philosophical thinking about dissonance. Focusing on Book II, I analyze Spenser’s productive use of dissonant elements at the different levels of narrative and style, which produce a similar effect to the alienating techniques that Adorno praises in literary and musical forms of expression. I then consider Adorno’s discussion of dissonance as an essential aspect of late style and bring it to bear on Spenser’s poetic practice in the conclusive Mutabilitie Cantos of the epic. I suggest that this comparative analysis may not only open up new avenues for interpreting Spenser’s epic but also help us to reassess the significance of Adorno’s more neglected discussions of dissonance in his minor works of literary criticism, which gesture toward the importance of this concept as a tool for textual analysis.