Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Then and Now
COL 265
Fall 2023 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
GRST 284 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
This course serves as an introduction to Critical Theory as first envisioned and practiced in the 1930s and 1940s by a group of European refugee scholars in New York and Los Angeles associated with the "Institute for Social Research," which later became known as the "Frankfurt School" (the city of Frankfurt being the location of its European origin and post-WW2 abode). Drawing on the German philosophical (Kant and Hegel), sociological (Weber and Simmel), psychological (Nietzsche and Freud), and Marxist (Engels, Marx, and Lukacs in particular) intellectual traditions, "Critical Theory" was intended to shed light on the genesis of capitalist class societies' inherently antagonistic and irrational makeup. Uncompromisingly interdisciplinary, the critical theorists explored phenomena such as authoritarian movements, mass media, propaganda, and the culture industry, and in doing so championed the significance of art and radical thought for the prospects of liberation from authoritarianism and alienated social relations. For the first generation of Critical Theorists (who must be distinguished from their less radical heirs, such as Habermas and Honneth), critique was not a purely academic exercise, but was pursued for the sake of radical social transformation and thus was sparked by a utopian impulse. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA COL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (COL)(CSCT)(GRST-MN)(GRST)(HRAD-MN) |
Major Readings:
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT, Stanford University Press, 2002, ISBN 9780804736336
Norbert Guterman and Leo Löwenthal, PROPHETS OF DECEIT: A STUDY OF THE TECHNIQUES OF THE AMERICAN AGITATOR, Verso 2021, ISBN 9781788736961
Theodor W. Adorno, THE STARS DOWN TO EARTH AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE IRRATIONAL IN CULTURE, Routledge 2002, ISBN 9780415271004
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Examinations and Assignments:
Three essays |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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