This book outlines the most important points of intersection between early phenomenology and critical theory. It develops extensive analyses of specific instruments of the phenomenological method such as eidetic intuition and the procedures of genetic phenomenology.  These procedures were both criticized and reappropriated by some of the most notable early critical theorists such as Adorno, Benjamin, Kracauer and Marcuse. As such, the book offers the first extensive account of the important phenomenological heritage of critical theory.

This book also attests to the versatility of the phenomenological method, which can be shown to have influenced a wide array of approaches within the critical tradition. The chapters focus on these early critical theorists and also discuss the applications of their methods within the treatment of numerous media-theory issues. In so doing, the book shows how fertile a critically reappropriated phenomenology may prove for tackling contemporary media phenomena such as television, film and advertising.  This volume appeals to students and researchers working in the crosshairs of phenomenology, critical theory, and media studies.

Christian Ferencz-Flatz (n. 1981) is a researcher at the Alexandru Dragomir Institute for Philosophy and an associated professor at the National University of Theatre and Film. He is a former fellow of the Alexander Humboldt Foundation. His research interests concern classical german phenomenology, critical theory, film and image theories. His most recent publications include the monographs Sehen Als-ob. Ästhetik und Pragmatik in Husserls Bildlehre (Bautz, 2016) and Filmul ca situaie social (Tact, 2018), as well as the 2016 and 2018 issues of Studia Phaenomenologica: Film and Phenomenology (with J. Hanich) and The Promise of Genetic Phenomenology (with A. Staiti).

1. The Function of Pre-theoretical Experience  in Critical Theory and Phenomenology.- 2. Eidetic Intuition and Physiognomic Interpretation.- 3. Adornos Genetic Phenomenology.- 4. On Radio. Phenomenology and Critical Media Studies.- 5. Benjamin and the Essence of Phenomenology.- 6. Tactile Reception and Life-Worldly Circumspection.- 7. History at the Crossroads: Heidegger and Surrealism .- 8. Statistic Intersubjectivity. A Phenomenology of Television Audiences.- 9. Kracauer: The Birth of Dialectics from Phenomenological Sociology.- 10. Sancho Panza and the Dialectics of Historic Film.- 11. Conclusions.