Professor Stephen Bronner Department of Political Science 790:607 Fall 2013
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Professor Stephen Bronner Department of Political Science 790:607 Fall 2013 Critical Theory and Society This course will center on the most important works of the “Frankfurt School” and the influences upon it. Critical theory will speak issues of aesthetics, politics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology: it emphasized the need for an interdisciplinary perspective from the beginning. The reading is heavy and difficult: be prepared to make a serious commitment to this course. Requirements will include essays of about 12 typed pages and strong class participation. Required Readings: Theodor Adorno, Hegel: Three Studies Walter Benjamin, Illuminations Stephen Eric Bronner and Douglas Kellner (eds.), Critical Theory and Society Stephen Eric Bronner, Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists Stephen Eric Bronner, Reclaiming the Enlightenment Erich Fromm, Marx’s Conception of Man Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory: Selected Essays Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization Background Readings: Stephen Eric Bronner, Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School Most of the required readings are available online: See the hyperlinks below and Sakai for digital versions. Course Outline Week 1: Marx, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 in Fromm, Marx’s Concept of Man, pp.78-152; “Introduction” and Horkheimer, “The State of Contemporary Philosophy” in Bronner and Kellner (eds.), Critical Theory and Society, pp. 1-21 & 25-36; Bronner, “Introduction” and “Sketching the Lineage” from Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists, pp. 3-10 & 11-38 Week 2-3: Lukács, “What is Orthodox Marxism?,” “Class Consciousness,” and “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat” from History and Class Consciousness, pp. 1-26, 46-82 & 83-222; Ernst Bloch, “Non-contemporaneity and Obligation to its Dialectics” from Heritage of Our Times, pp. 97-148 (on Sakai) Week 4: Horkheimer, “Traditional and Critical Theory” and “Materialism and Metaphysics (on Sakai)” in Critical Theory, pp. 188-243 & 10-46; Marcuse, “Philosophy and Society” in Critical Theory and Society, pp. 58-74; Bronner, “Horkheimer’s Road” from Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists, pp. 77-95 Week 5: Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” and “Theses on the Philosophy of History” in Illuminations, pp. 217-251 & 253-264; Bronner, “Rescuing the Fragments: On the Messianic Materialism of Walter Benjamin” from Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists, pp. 96-115 Week 6-7: Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (on Sakai); Bronner, Reclaiming the Enlightenment Week 8: Marcuse, Eros and Civilization (on Sakai); Fromm, “The Crisis of Psychoanalysis” in Critical Theory and Society, pp. 247-252; Bronner, “Utopia, Aesthetics, and Revolution: Herbert Marcuse and the Radical Imagination” from Of Critical Theory and its Theorists, pp. 172-188 Week 9-10: Habermas, “The Public Sphere;” Pollock, “State Capitalism;” Marcuse, “Liberation from the Affluent Society;” Adorno, “The Culture Industry Reconsidered” and “Jazz” in Critical Theory and Society, pp. 136-142, 95-118, 276-287, 128-135, 199-209; Bronner, “Dialectics at a Standstill: A Methodological Inquiry into the Philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno” from Of Critical Theory and its Theorists, pp. 137-155 Week 11: Adorno, Introduction to Aesthetic Theory (on Sakai), Introduction to Negative Dialectics (on Sakai), “Trying to Understand Endgame,” Hegel: Three Studies Week 12-13: Habermas, “The Tasks of Critical Theory” in Critical Theory and Society, pp. 292-312; Bronner, “Jürgen Habermas and the Language of Politics” and “Critical Theory and Civil Society: Political Interests, Private Passions, and the Public Sphere” from Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists, pp. 189-213 & 214- 230 Week 14: Bronner, “Points of Departure: Sketches for a Critical Theory with Public Aims” from Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists, pp. 231-258 .