Dialectics, Revolution, and Despair: Critical Theory from Lukács to Davis

Undergraduate / Graduate

What is a critical theory of society? On what basis does one develop one? How do we transform critical theory into praxis? This course returns to the roots of Frankfurt School Critical Theory to re-interrogate some of its foundational questions and ideas, before branching off into some of its lesser-studied trajectories. We will first engage with some of its sources in the works of Karl Marx and Georg Lukács, analyzing concepts like alienation and reification that will become central to the Frankfurt School, before examining core texts from Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and others, that engage with questions of emancipation and the role of critique. Finally, we will examine its offshoots and contemporary legacies among thinkers like Angela Davis, Hans-Jürgen Krahl, Robyn Marasco, Eva von Redecker, and Rahel Jaeggi.