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This book considers whether critical theory is up to the task of addressing our contemporary crises, including the question of 'post-truth' discourse, psycho-social pathologies, the rise of right-wing populism, the Covid-19 pandemic, the anticolonial deficit in critical theory, and the neo-liberal management of the academy. The contributors offer a series of timely and complex reflections on the nature of critical theory, its role in contemporary society, and its various developments since the early twentieth century. In doing so, they analyse a variety of contemporary issues that, through critical reflection, can help us to navigate these problems. This volume seeks to highlight problems and possibilities within this field of thought, and endeavours to contribute towards reconsidering its capabilities and relevance.
List of contents
1. On The Crisis of Critique: Reformulating the Project of Critical Theory.- 2. An Anticolonial Deficit in Frankfurt School Critical Theory: A Need for a Decolonial Turn.- 3. Critical Condition.- 4. Critical Theory, Political Modernity and Sociological Modernity.- 5. Erich Fromm & Contemporary Critical Theory.- 6. The Uses of Marx's Value: Theoretical Concept of Reproduction for Social Reproduction.- 7. Abandonment or Liberation? Anorexia, Refusal of Treatment, and the Limits of Proceduralism.- 8. Responding to Precarity: Ethic and Mediation in Butler and Adorno.- 9. Re-Thinking Social Transformation: Utopian Consciousness within Critical Theory: Covid-19, "The New Normal", and Dreams of a Better Life.- 10. Beyond Post-Truth: Critical Theory and the Possibility of Radical Enlightenment.- 11. Totality, Malaise and Agitation: Towards a Critical Theory of Authoritarian Politics.- 12. Adorno's Exaggerations and the Limits of Social Pathology Critique.- 13. Towards a Post-Capitalist Horizon of Possibility: Mark Fisher and the Renewal of Critical Social Theory for the Twenty First Century.
About the author
Denis C. Bosseau is a Doctoral Candidate affiliated with the Research Centre for Social & Political Thought
(SPT) at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. His current research (
Spectres of Lenin) problematises the heritage and continued relevance of V.I. Lenin's political realism (concrete analysis and the politico-strategic question of emancipation) seen through the prism of contemporary social movements and struggles. His most recent publications include: "The Revolt of the Maladjusted: Defacing the Currency of Social Pathology Diagnosis in Contemporary Critical Theory" in
Pathology Diagnosis and Social Research - New Applications and Explorations (2021)
Tom Bunyard is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Brighton, UK, where he teaches philosophy, critical theory, cultural studies and aesthetics. He is also the author of
Debord, Time and Spectacle: Hegelian Marxism and Situationist Theory (2018).
