Lecture 1: Defining Critical Theory
This lecture provides a general definition of theory and a specific definition of literary theory.
It also attempts a distinction between literary theory and literary criticism.
Objectives
· At the end of this lecture, students should be able to define theory in general and literary theory in particular
· distinguish between literary theory and literary criticism.
1. 1. Introduction
In the field of literary criticism the meaning of “theory” is deemed by its attempt to govern interpretations of particular texts. Theory, then, is the researcher’s special project in literary criticism by appealing to an amount of interpretation in general. Recently, contemporary theory has taken two forms. Some theorists have sought to ground the reading of literary texts in methods designed to guarantee the objectivity and validity of interpretations. Others, impressed by the inability of such procedures to produce agreement among interpreters, have translated that failure into an alternative mode of theory that denies the possibility of correct interpretation. The critique could be driven by skepticism about whether theorizing, in any form, actually leads to useful or meaningful knowledge. Some critics argue that theory tends to abstract real-world issues into overly complex or distant formulations, separating intellectual work from concrete human experiences or practical concerns. Another view, perhaps, considers theory as distortion. In this sense, critique might be the view that theory imposes artificial frameworks onto reality. By attempting to categorize, generalize, or explain phenomena through theoretical models, one risks distorting the richness or messiness of lived experiences. In this sense, theorizing could be seen as reductive, failing to account for the full complexity of human life.
Interestingly, our aim here is not to choose between these two alternatives but rather to show that both rest on a single mistake, a mistake that is central to the notion of theory per se. The object of our critique is not a particular way of doing theory but the idea of doing theory at all. This critique challenges the very premise of engaging in "theory" as a mode of intellectual or philosophical activity. Rather than disputing a particular theoretical approach (e.g., Marxist theory, feminist theory, critical race theory), it questions the foundational idea that we can or should engage in theorizing at all. However, no matter where one stands there are always some justified definitions if not descriptions.
Critical theory is an approach that studies society in a dialectical (discussion of reasoning by dialogue as method of intellectual investigation, the process in which a concept is realized by its opposite Hegel) way by analyzing political economy, domination, exploitation, and ideologies. It is a normative approach that is based on the judgment that domination is a problem, that a domination-free society is needed. It wants to inform political struggles that want to establish such a society. The question of what it means to be critical is of high importance for political communication.
All contemporary political communication is in a specific way critical because it consists of speech acts that normally question political opinions and practices of certain actors. This understanding of critique stands in the tradition of Kantian enlightenment that considered the Enlightenment as an age of criticism. In contrast to Kant’s general understanding of critique, Karl Marx and the Marxian tradition understands the categoric imperative (the obligation to do one's duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of further ends) as the need to overcome all forms of slavery and degradation and to unmask alienation. This school of thought points out a more specific understanding of being critical, namely the questioning of power, domination, and exploitation, the political demand and struggle for a just society. Critical theory is understood as a critique of society.
1.2 What is Critical Theory?
Answering the question is difficult because Critical Theory has itself evolved into a cacophony of various voices, making the task of laying down basic tenets common conceptual trajectories and political goals quite a challenge. But since the question— What is Critical Theory? –itself presupposes a context; the task of this is basically the attempt to contextualize a particular form of engagement with social reality. That is what Critical Theory is basically –an engagement with social reality. It is nevertheless only one among the many ways we engage with social reality—and so the more precise question we should be asking is: what kind of engagement with social reality is Critical Theory?
Some theorist would consider critical theory as a social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole so as to provide understanding and explanation. Its crucial aim digging beneath the surface of social life to uncover the assumptions that keep us from a full and true understanding of how the world works. Historically, critical theory stemmed its roots from the Marxist tradition and it was soon developed by a group of sociologists at the University of Frankfurt in Germany who referred to themselves as The Frankfurt School.
In this sense, ‘literary theory’ isn’t something you learn, it’s something you become aware of. You already have a theory, or several theories, about literature, but you may have never thought about them or articulated them. And that’s pretty much what this lecture is about: working to articulate, to understand, some of the basic assumptions we have about the category we call ‘literature,’ and about how a ‘literary’ text is – or isn’t – different from any other kind of text. Literary theories have existed as long as literature has. ‘Literary Theory,’ with the capital letters, points to sets of ideas that have greatly influenced the way we have thought about, taught, and produced scholarship on ‘literature’ within colleges and universities in the past 30 to 40 years.
‘Literary Theory’ is a big umbrella term that covers a variety of approaches to texts (‘literary’ or not); if these approaches have anything in common, it is that all of them examine factors that shape how a text is written and how we are able to read it. ‘Literary Theory’ comes from all kinds of disciplines, including linguistics, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, history, economics, gender studies, ethnic studies, and political science; much of what falls under the heading ‘Literary Theory,’ as you’ll see, has little to do directly with what we think of as ‘literature.’ (Klages 3) Since it seems difficult to come up with a precise definition of ‘literary theory’ as a single graspable entity, perhaps we need to ask a different question. Why is ‘literary theory’ something important for students of literature to know? Why ‘literary theory’ is considered a necessary and valuable part of a literary education?
1.3 Overview
The traces of critical theory as it is known today go back to Marx’s critique of the economy and society put forth in his many works. Marx’s theoretical assumptions and formulation of the relationship between economic base and ideological superstructure and its focus on how power domination operates greatly influenced the practitioners of critical theory. Drawing on Marx’s critical theory, Hungarian György Lukács and Italian Antonio Gramsci developed theories that explored the cultural and ideological sides of power and domination. They built their critiques focusing on the social forces that prevent people from seeing and understanding the forms of power and domination that exist in society and affect their lives. Despite this decisive shift on Horkheimer’s part, early Critical Theory is, nonetheless, profoundly indebted to Marxist social criticism, more specifically, via Georg Lukács History and Class Consciousness (1920), specifically to the anti-determinist and anti-positivist stance of this particular work that ran against the status quo of Orthodox Marxism in 1920s. (Held 20-21)
Shortly afterward the Institute for Social Research was established at the University of Frankfurt where the Frankfurt School of critical theorists emerged. The outstanding associated theorists of this school such as Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, Walter Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, and Herbert Marcuse, were the first to consider the definition and heart of critical theory. According to these theorists a “critical” theory may be distinguished from a “traditional” theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” (Horkheimer, 1982, 244). Theories aim to explain and transform circumstances; critical theories provide the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in their forms. A clarification is given to what is not clearly understood or is questionable.
Max Horkheimer wrote a book entitled Traditional and Critical Theory (1937), where he combined Marxist-oriented political philosophy with social and cultural analysis informed by empirical research providing a clear definition of critical theory. In this work, Horkheimer asserted that a critical theory must do two important things: it must account for the whole of society within a historical context, and it should seek to offer a robust and holistic critique by incorporating insights from all social sciences. Besides, Horkheimer stated that a theory can only be considered a true critical theory if it is explanatory, practical, and normative, meaning that the theory must adequately explain the social problems that exist. It must offer practical solutions for how to respond to them and make change, and it must clearly abide by the norms of criticism established by the field.
1.4 Additional Notes
Critical theory was born in the trauma of the Weimar Republic, grew to maturity in expatriation, and achieved cultural currency on its return from exile. Passed on from its founding first generation – among others Max Horkheimer, Friedrich Pollock, Herbert Marcuse, and Theodor Adorno – to the leader of its second, Jurgen Habermas, ¨ Critical Theory remained central to European philosophical, social, and political thought throughout the Cold War period. It is still a vital philosophical and political perspective, and a third generation of critical theorists, among whom Axel Honneth is most prominent; continue to press its concerns largely in terms of the tradition that began in the Weimar years. Along with phenomenology in its various forms and the philosophy and social theory gathered loosely under the headings of structuralism and poststructuralism, Critical Theory is a preeminent voice in twentieth-century continental thought.
Critical theory first develops during a period of extraordinarily complex intellectual activity in Germany. If one were to take the year 1930 as a benchmark – when Max Horkheimer becomes the director of the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt – and were to look back upon the decade preceding that date, one would encounter in their most vibrant forms many of the most important philosophical movements of the twentieth century: the hermeneutic phenomenology of Heidegger; the logical empiricism of the Vienna Circle and the early Wittgenstein; various strands of neo-Kantianism; and the humanistic Marxism of Lukacs. In political and social theory, psychology, historiography, and economics the situation is hardly less multifarious. Each of these views or schools, sometimes in combination with elements of others, vies for predominance in the Weimar period.
There was a time when the interpretation of literary texts and literary theory seemed two different and almost unrelated things. Interpretation was about the actual meaning of a poem, a novel, or a play, while theory seemed alien to what the study of literature was really about. In the last thirty years, however, interpretation and theory have moved closer and closer to each other. In fact, for many contemporary critics and theorists interpretation and theory cannot be separated at all. They would argue that when we interpret a text we always do so from a theoretical perspective, and that theory cannot do without interpretation.
Perhaps it is also important to note that Critical Theory as literary critics understand it has a separate history from that of the Frankfurt School. But somehow there is an intertwining of these histories in the 1970s. Critical theory in literary criticism was originally a reaction in the 1960s against the New Criticism that was prevalent in Anglo-American literary theory during the1920s to the 1960s. New Criticism sought to read literary texts from a purist standpoint, without the consideration of the external circumstances that contribute to the writing of texts, especially the socio-historico-political contingencies that make up the texts, e.g., biography, the intention of the author, and the response of the reader.
1.1 Conclusion
The very schematic structure of this lecture simply offers the tip of the iceberg and by no means an exhaustive answer to the question “What is Critical Theory?” Nevertheless, considering Horkheimer’s“Traditional and Critical Theory,” we could derive a tentative answer—that Critical Theory is a form of materialist critique of social reality that is normatively informed by the following assumptions: 1) any form of theorizing, including critical theory, presupposes the social world of human beings, 2) critique is normatively grounded in the social emancipation of men from oppression and social injustice, and 3) the revolutionary impulse need not be limited to the bourgeoisie-proletariat structure and could be located in different social structures beyond the system of labor. Theory is a set of beliefs, ideas, principles, perspectives, and a canon of running thoughts which is used to speculate on phenomena and to give rational interpretations to those phenomena.Literary theories includes a group of theories whose rule is to interpret literary text based on specific considerations.
From the above mentioned assumptions, it could be suggested that Critical Theory is an appropriate theoretico-diagnostic tool in appraising social pathologies. The qualification involves a shift in the way we commonly view the role of philosophical thinking—a shift from the language of Scholastic metaphysics to a, more or less, socio-politico-philosophical standpoint grounded in social reality. Furthermore, there should be a more in-depth prognosis of the roots of oppression and social injustice in the country.
Literary theory and literary practice – the practice of interpretation – however, can indeed not very well be separated and certainly not at the more advanced level of academic literary studies.
We still ask ‘what does it mean?’ when we read a poem or novel or see a play. But we have additional questions. We ask ‘what does it mean to whom?’ And ‘why does it mean what it means?’ Or, more specifically, ‘who wants it to have this meaning and for what reasons?’ As we will see, such questions do not diminish literature. On the contrary, they make it even more important.
1.2 Summary
Literary Theory and Criticism introduces you to the major theoretical approaches to the study of literature. This is because the study of literature is no longer – if it ever were – simply the study and evaluation of poems, novels and plays. It is also the study of the ideas, issues, and difficulties which arise in any literary text and in its interpretation. New critical theories emerge as literary scholars develop new methodologies of reading, especially in the arts and humanities. By studying these theories, you would have been provided with a “tool kit” for your own informed critical reading and thought about works of literature.
Critical theory is a broad and interdisciplinary intellectual tradition that emerged primarily in the fields of philosophy, sociology, and literary studies during the 20th century. It encompasses a wide range of approaches and perspectives, but at its core, critical theory involves a critical examination of society, culture, and knowledge with the goal of understanding and challenging systems of power, inequality, and oppression. Here are key elements and characteristics of critical theory:
Historical Roots: Critical theory has its roots in the works of several influential thinkers, including Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche. These thinkers laid the foundation for critical approaches to understanding society, ideology, and human behavior.
Interdisciplinarity: Critical theory is not confined to a single academic discipline. It draws on insights from philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, political science, and other fields to analyze and critique various aspects of society and culture.
Social Critique: A central aim of critical theory is to provide a critical analysis of society and culture, uncovering the ways in which power, domination, and inequality are structured and maintained. It seeks to expose social injustices and the mechanisms that perpetuate them.
Ideology Critique: Critical theorists often engage in the critique of ideology, examining how dominant beliefs, values, and norms serve to justify and maintain existing power structures. This involves questioning the hidden assumptions that underlie societal norms and institutions.(Gabriel Markus, Marx, Althussier and Raymond Williams)
Emphasis on Agency: Critical theory recognizes the potential for individuals and groups to engage in social and political transformation. It often explores the agency of marginalized or oppressed groups and seeks to empower them to challenge and change the status quo.
Dialectical Thinking: Many critical theorists employ dialectical thinking, a method of analysis that involves examining opposing forces and contradictions within society. This approach helps reveal the tensions and conflicts that drive social change. Dialectical thinking is a set of attention and thinking strategies, or approaches, to reducing automatic negative thinking, dichotomous thinking, polarizing, and concomitant negative emotions. (Zeno of Elea and Parmenides Socratic dialectic Plato Aristotle Kant Fichte, Schelling, and the post-Kantian dialectic, Hegelian dialectic, Marxist dialectic)
Cultural Critique: Critical theory also encompasses cultural critique, analyzing how culture, including literature, art, media, and popular culture, reflects and perpetuates societal values and power dynamics. Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, David Strauss, Friedrich Schiller, Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, and E. P. Thompson.
Language and Discourse: Critical theorists are interested in language and discourse as powerful tools for shaping and controlling social reality. They explore how language constructs meaning, identities, and social hierarchies.
Continual Self-Reflection: Critical theorists often engage in self-reflection, acknowledging their own social positions, biases, and perspectives. This awareness helps them critically assess their own role in perpetuating or challenging societal inequalities.
Practical Engagement: While critical theory is an intellectual pursuit, it often emphasizes the importance of practical engagement and activism. Critical theorists may work toward social and political change through advocacy, education, and community organizing.
Prominent figures associated with critical theory include Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, bell hooks, and many others. Critical theory has influenced a wide range of academic disciplines and social movements, including feminism, postcolonial studies, queer theory, and critical race theory, and it continues to evolve and adapt to contemporary social and political challenges.
References
Held, David. (1980). Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas. Berkeley: University of California Press
Horkheimer, Max. (1989). “Traditional and Critical Theory.” In Critical Theory: Selected Essays. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. New York: Continuum,
... . (1993). Between Philosophy and Social Science: Selected Early Writings. Translated by G. Frederick Hunter, Matthew S. Kramer and John Torpey. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press
Jay, Martin. (1996). The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923‑1950.California: University of California Press,
Klages, Mary. (2006). Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum International Publishing Group. New York,
Marcuse, Herbert. (1968). “Philosophy and Critical Theory.” In Negations: Essays in Critical Theory. Translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro London: The Penguin Press