  The bookends of Marcuse’s literary, philosophical, and political life are works on aesthetics. In 1922 he completed a doctoral dissertation entitled Der deutsche Künstlerroman (The German Artist-Novel). In 1978, one year before his death he published The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward A Critique of Marxist Aesthetics. Between these two works are several smaller works on aesthetics. However, even the works that do not deal directly with aesthetics still contain (we might say) an aesthetic dimension. It is not possible to discuss the role of aesthetics in all of Marcuse’s works. Therefore, the role of aesthetics in Marcuse’s critical theory in general will be discussed. There are three key works on aesthetics which were written at different times that reveal the overall point of Marcuse’s aesthetic theory. 