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, 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
“Kulturkritik o Ideologiekritik? Fredric Jameson, Theodor W. Adorno y la industria cultural.”Las valencias de Fredric Jameson: Homenaje a un crítico dialéctico. Edited by Alejandro Valenzuela and Jorge Manzi, Ediciones Metales Pesados, 2026, pp. 87–110
2026“Industria cultural, subjetividad y dominación: Adorno y el Proyecto Radio.”Theodor W. Adorno y la Teoría Crítica de la negatividad. Grupo de Teoría Crítica / ennnegativoEdiciones, pp. 175–226
2025“Elisabeth Lenk, Theodor W. Adorno y las vanguardias.”En las sombras de la tradición. Eterna Cadencia, pp. 175–194
2023“Romance e reificação: Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno e Fredric Jameson.”Anuário Lukács 10, pp. 130–159
2023“Indústria cultural: o conceito e sua atualidade em 7 teses.”Revista do Centro de Pesquisa e Formação, pp. 176–193
2022“Culture Industry, Subjectivity, and Domination: Adorno and the Radio Project.”Mediations 35, pp. 3–34
2022“Nicht mitmachen! and Weitermachen!: Rereading Adorno and Marcuse on Theory and Praxis.”With Eduardo Altheman. Rethinking Marxism 34, pp. 63–80
2019“Abaixo da superfície: Adorno e o cinema reconsiderado.”Novos Estudos CEBRAP 38, pp. 477–493
2019“Adorno, leitor de Marx.”Sociologia & Antropologia 9, pp. 519–541
2018“Socialização e dominação: a Escola de Frankfurt e a cultura.”With Eduardo Altheman. Tempo Social 30, pp. 123–141
2016“Em rota de colisão: Adorno, Marcuse e os movimentos estudantis.”Ideias 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 Realism.”Roberto Schwarz and World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 219–235
2023“Roberto Schwarz, Machado de Assis e o problema do realismo.”Letterature d’America 195, pp. 63–84
2024“Mais uma vez, ainda, ‘Cultura e Política, 1964–1969’.”Ensaios sobre Roberto Schwarz. UEPB, pp. 219–244
2022“Dos veces cultura y política.”Diálogos Sur-Sur. Universitaria, pp. 161–182
2020“Abra-te Sésamo: a teoria crítica de Gabriel Cohn.”Sociologia & Antropologia 10, pp. 449–465
2019“Modelos críticos: Antonio Candido e Roberto Schwarz leem Oswald de Andrade.”Revista 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
2024“At the Heart of the Impossible: Walter Benjamin, Marcel Proust and La Recherche.”Aisthesis 76, pp. 84–104
2023“Macunaíma: la epopeya negativa de Mário de Andrade.”Las fracturas del mármol. CLACSO / La Habana Editorial, pp. 159–183
2022“Aquellos años veinte en Brasil: good old days or bad new ones?”Revista Chilena de Literatura 106, pp. 285–316
2019“Karl Marx na metrópole do capital.”With Vladimir Puzone. Vitorianos: contradições e desdobramentos. LiberArs, pp. 59–78
2016“Eles devoraram tudo: primitivismo, barbárie e as vanguardas.”Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros 64, pp. 296–309
2015“Benjamin leitor de Brecht: cinema e distanciamento.”Pandaemonium Germanicum, pp. 37–52
2012“Desventuras da subversão: Oswald de Andrade, o Teatro Oficina e os dois momentos de O Rei da Vela.”Proa 4, pp. 85–99
Platform Capitalism and Fascism
2026
“The New Organisation: Digital Culture Industry and Platform Neofascism.”Contemporary Critical Theory and Latin America: A South–North Dialogue on the Crises of the Present. Edited by Alexis Gros, Agustín L. Prestifilippo, and Santiago M. Roggerone, Routledge, 2026, pp. 141–163
2025“Unidimensionalidad en el siglo XXI: racionalidad tecnocapitalista, industria cultural digital y postmodernidad de plataformas.”Constelaciones 17, pp. 390–406
2024“Plattform-Neofaschismus: digitale Kulturindustrie und die extreme Rechte heute.”WestEnd 21, pp. 31–52
2025“Twenty-First-Century One-Dimensionality: Big Technological Rationality, Digital Culture Industry, and Platform Postmodernity.”The Marcusean Mind. Routledge, pp. 510–521
2023“Classe ou massa? Freud, Adorno e Marx.”Marx 200 Anos. Zouk
2020“Com quantos paus se faz uma canoa? Notas sobre a personalidade autoritária.”Crítica Marxista 50, pp. 103–110
Interviews
Critical
encounters.
2023
“Cem anos do Instituto de Pesquisa Social. Entrevista com Martin Jay.”With Eduardo Altheman. Cadernos de Filosofia Alemã 28(3), pp. 111–124
2023“Entrevista com Nancy Fraser.”With Nathalie Bressiani. Margem Esquerda 41, pp. 11–35
2022“The holy family: Neoliberalism and neoconservatism in the current far-right: Interview with Melinda Cooper.”Cultural Dynamics 34(3), pp. 242–250
2020“Por um novo casamento entre feminismo e marxismo. Entrevista com Cinzia Arruzza e Tithi Bhattacharya.”Crítica Marxista 51, pp. 147–160
2020“Neo-Backwardness in Bolsonaro’s Brazil (Interview with Roberto Schwarz).”New Left Review 123, pp. 25–38
2019“Weiterdenken. Theodor W. Adorno e as conferências de 1949–1968: uma entrevista com Michael Schwarz.”With Fernando Bee. Dissonância 3, pp. 342–351
2020“Os labirintos de Marx — entrevista com Michael Heinrich.”Crítica Marxista 50, pp. 275–288
2017“Escola de Frankfurt, Foucault e o neoliberalismo. Entrevista com Thomas Lemke.”With Eduardo Altheman. Tempo Social 29(1), pp. 305–313
Cultural criticism
Reading culture
from within.
2021
“Dialética da desumanização.”Sociologia & Antropologia 11, pp. 195–199
2019“Crítica da tragédia, crítica da farsa: Roda Viva pelo Teatro Oficina.”Revista Café com Sociologia 8, pp. 14–25
2016“Criticism and Condescension: The Triumph of the Poor in The Second Mother.”Latin American Perspectives 43, pp. 141–143
2023“Culture Industry: A (Political) Research Agenda for Critical Theory.”Global Dialogue 13(3)
2019“Teoria, política e história: um debate com E. P. Thompson.”Review of Perry Anderson. Crítica Marxista 49, pp. 175–177
2018“Walter Benjamin: uma biografia.”Review of Bernd Witte. Crítica Marxista 47, pp. 209–211
2018“A teoria crítica na ordem do dia: Horkheimer hoje.”With Eduardo Altheman. Review of Max Horkheimer’s Eclipse da Razão. Plural 25(1), pp. 265–271
2013“A escuta sociológica da arte: música e crítica da sociedade em Adorno.”Review 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
2026O que é fascismo para a Teoria Crítica?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 Cinema.”Berliner Gazette
2026“Military Dictatorship in Brazil, Armed Resistance, and the Political Unconscious.”Berliner Gazette
2024“No Road Map for Critical Theory: An Introductory Guide to the Frankfurt School.”International Herbert Marcuse Society
2024“Theses for the Social Media Age: Why Platform Neofascism Will Bring About the Techno-Apocalypse.”Berliner Gazette
2022“Por que o marxismo precisa ser feminista.”With Daniela Costanzo and Isabella Meucci · Revista Cult
2022“The Setback of Women’s Rights in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.”Washington Brazil Office
2018“Atualidade do pensamento de Marx é tema de debates na USP.”Jornal da USP
2018“Roberto Schwarz reflete sobre quatro tentativas de modernização do Brasil.”With 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