«NEGATIVE UNIVERSAL HISTORY» IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: THE NOTION OF NEGATIVE IN CHAKRABARTY’S REVISION OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY AND ADORNO’S DIALECTICS

Abstract

The essay compares Dipesh Chakrabarty’s and Theodor Adorno’s understandings of a «negative universal history» in the context of the Anthropocene. While Chakrabarty’s concept emphasizes radical alterity, Adorno’s notion is dialectically mediated. By reconstructing Chakrabarty’s critique of historicism and Adorno’s critique of Hegelian universal history, the contribution highlights the divergent ways in which the two thinkers conceptualize the concept of ‘negative’. The article argues that a dialectical and determinate understanding of the concept of ‘negative’ is necessary to adequately grasp the complex intertwinement between different historical and natural dimensions in the context of the Anthropocene.