Critical Theory

Catalog description

In this course, the term Critical Theory refers to a distinctive approach to social, cultural, and political theory associated with the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which was founded in 1923. Members of what came to be called the Frankfurt School were sharply critical of the political structures, social institutions, and culture of late capitalist societies such as Germany and the United States (where they lived and worked in exile during the Second World War). They were heavily influenced by the post-Kantian German philosophical tradition, especially the work of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. This course will focus on the historical development of Critical Theory, with an emphasis on the major figures of the early Frankfurt School: Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, and Herbert Marcuse. However, since Critical Theory is also an ongoing theoretical project, we will also study some contemporary representatives of this tradition, as well as some of its trenchant critics. After some introductory material, including discussion of the Marxist background of early Critical Theory, the course will focus on the following themes: Modernity, History, and Progress; Psychoanalysis and Critique; Culture and Art; and Race, Antisemitism, and Imperialism. In addition to the authors mentioned above, we will discuss work by such thinkers as Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, Nancy Fraser, Seyla Benhabib, Enrique Dussel, and Angela Davis.