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1 North American Critical Theory After Postmodernism Notes 1 North American Critical Theory after Postmodernism 1. I use postmodernism to mark a point, c. 1980, after which it was necessary for critical theorists, in their engagement of contemporary ideas, to address the thesis of postmodernity as it was represented in the ideas of scholars such as Lyotard and Baudrillard. This period includes authors such as Foucault and Derrida, but I do not use postmodernism as a descriptor of their ideas. I use post- structuralism to distinguish Foucault and Derrida, whose ideas were being debated at the same time as the ‘postmodern turn,’ but which I would not classify as ‘postmodern.’ Thus, by ‘after postmodernism,’ I merely mean after the ‘postmodern’ turn had been declared and thus the point after which this generation of critical theorists began to critically engage the idea. This is briefly discussed in Fraser’s interview, where she prompts me to clarify my use of the word. 2. Peter Beilharz, introduction to Postwar American Critical Thought (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2006), xxxi. 3. Philip Wexler, preface to Critical Theory Now (New York: Falmer Press, 1991), viii. 4. Göran Therborn, From Marxism to Post-Marxism? (London and New York: Verso, 2008). 5. Therborn, From Marxism to Post-Marxism?, 105. 6. Robert J. Antonio, ‘The Origin, Development, and Contemporary Status of Critical Theory,’ Sociological Quarterly 24, 3 (1983): 342. 7. See Jules Townshend, ‘Laclau and Mouffe’s Hegemonic Project: The Story So Far,’ Political Studies 52, 6 (2004). 8. Chantal Mouffe, ‘Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism,’ Social Research 66, 3 (Fall 1999). 9. Nancy Fraser, ‘A Future for Marxism,’ New Politics 6, 4 (1998): 95. 10. Agger, Ben and Tim Luke, ‘Politics in Postmodernity: The Diaspora of Politics and the Homelessness of Political and Social Theory,’ in Theoretical Discussions in Political Sociology for the 21st Century 11, Betty A. Dobratz, Timothy Buzzell and Lisa K. Waldner, eds. 11. Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London and New York: Verso, 2005). 12. Steven Best and Douglas Kellner, Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations (New York: Guilford Press, 1991), 201. 13. Ben Agger, ‘Is Wright Wrong (or Should Burawoy be Buried)?: Reflections on the Crisis of the “Crisis of Marxism,”’ Berkeley Journal of Sociology XXXIV (1989d): 187. 14. See Jules Townshend, ‘Laclau and Mouffe’s Hegemonic Project: The Story So Far,’ Political Studies 52 (2004). 15. Robert J. Antonio, ‘Immanent critique as the Core of Critical Theory: Its Origins and Developments in Hegel, Marx, and Contemporary Thought,’ British Journal of Sociology 32, 3 (1981): 330–1. 205 206 Notes 16. See Fast Capitalism 5.1. 17. G. Genosko, S. Gandesha and K. Marcellus, ‘A Crucible of Critical Interdisciplinarity: The Toronto Telos Group,’ Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 8 (Fall 2002): 2–3. 18. See Laura Secor, ‘Testaments Betrayed: Yugoslavian Intellectuals and the Road to War,’ Lingua Franca 9, 6 (September 1999). 19. Timothy W. Luke, ‘Toward a North American Critical Theory,’ Telos 101 (Fall 1994a): 102–3. 20. Andrew Arato, Jose Casanova, Jean Cohen, and Joel Whitebook, Letter dated June 1, 1987. Telos Newsletter October 19 (1987): 8. 21. See Ben Agger, The Discourse of Domination: From the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism (Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press, 1992a); Robert J. Antonio, ‘The Normative Foundations of Emancipatory Theory: Evolutionary Versus Pragmatic Perspectives,’ The American Journal of Sociology 94, 4 (1989); Seyla Benhabib, ‘Epistemologies of Postmodernism: A Rejoinder to Franc¸ois Lyotard,’ New German Critique 33 (Autumn 1984b); Craig Calhoun, ‘Postmodernism as Pseudohistory,’ Theory, Culture and Society 10, 1 (1993); Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1989a); Douglas Kellner, Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989b). 22. Andrew Arato, ‘Lukács’ Path to Marxism (1910–1923),’ Telos 7 (Spring 1971); Andrew Arato, ‘Lukács’ Theory of Reification,’ Telos 11 (Spring 1972); Andrew Arato, ‘The Budapest School and Actually Existing Socialism,’ Theory and Society 16, 4 (1987). 23. Andrew Arato, ‘The Second International: A Reexamination,’ Telos 18 (Winter 1973–74). 24. Andrew Arato, ‘Understanding Bureaucratic Centralism,’ Telos 35 (Spring 1978): 73. 25. Andrew Arato, ‘Civil Society against the State: Poland 1980–1981,’ Telos 47 (Spring 1981); Andrew Arato, ‘Empire vs. Civil Society: Poland 1981–82,’ Telos 50 (Winter 1981–82). 26. Andrew Arato, Civil Society, Constitution, and Legitimacy (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000). 27. Robert J. Antonio, ‘The Origin, Development, and Contemporary Status of Critical Theory,’ Sociological Quarterly 24, 3 (1983): 345. 28. Seyla Benhabib, Critique, Norm, and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory (New York, Columbia University Press, 1986a), 15. 29. Benhabib, Critique, Norm, and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory, 15. 30. Seyla Benhabib, ‘Modernity and the Aporias of Critical Theory,’ Telos 47 (Fall 1981): 59. 31. Seyla Benhabib, ‘Epistemologies of Postmodernism: A Rejoinder to Franc¸ois Lyotard’: 126. 32. Douglas Kellner, Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989a), 52. 33. Douglas Kellner, ‘Postmodernism as Social Theory: Some Challenges and Problems,’ Theory, Culture, and Society 5, 2 (1988): 266. Notes 207 34. Ben Agger, Critical Social Theories: An Introduction (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 3. See also Ben Agger, ‘Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism: Their Sociological Relevance,’ Annual Review of Sociology 17, 1 (1991a). 35. Ben Agger, Fast Capitalism: A Critical Theory of Significance (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989a); Ben Agger, Socio(onto)logy: A Disciplinary Reading (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989b); Ben Agger, Reading Science: A Literary, Political, and Sociological Analysis (Dix Hills, New York: General Hall, Inc, 1989c.). 36. Ben Agger, Gender, Culture, Power: Toward a Feminist Postmodern Critical Theory (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1993), 26. 37. Agger, The Discourse of Domination: From the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism, 265. 38. Agger, The Discourse of Domination: From the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism, 219. 39. Agger, The Discourse of Domination: From the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism, 266. 40. Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1989a), 13, footnote 2. 41. Nancy Fraser, ‘What’s Critical About Critical Theory? The Case of Habermas and Gender,’ New German Critique 35 (Spring–Summer 1985b): 97. 42. Craig Calhoun, Critical Social Theory: Culture, History and the Challenge of Difference (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1995), 35. 43. Calhoun, Critical Social Theory: Culture, History and the Challenge of Difference, 134. 44. Timothy W. Luke, Ideology and Soviet Industrialization (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985a), 31–2. 45. Luke, Ideology and Soviet Industrialization, 173. 46. Timothy W. Luke, Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination, and Resistance in Informational Society (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989a), 7. 47. Luke, Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination, and Resistance in Informational Society, 8. 48. Luke, Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination, and Resistance in Informational Society, 9. 49. Luke, Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination, and Resistance in Informational Society, 9. 2 Timothy W. Luke 1. Interviewed by Patricia Mooney Nickel, April 1, 2010, San Francisco, CA. 2. Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966). 3. Herbert Marcuse, One- Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964). 4. Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969). 5. Herbert Marcuse, Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis (Columbia University Press, 1958). 6. Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Routledge, 2002). 208 Notes 7. Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans. R. Howard (New York: Random House, 1965). 8. Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972). 9. Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (New York: Pantheon, 1973). 10. Jürgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, trans. Thomas McCarthy (London: Heinemann, 1976). 11. Jürgen Habermas, Toward a Rational Society (London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, 1971). 12. Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Thomas Burger (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989). 13. Fredric Jameson, ‘Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,’ New Left Review 146 ( July–August 1984): 53–92. 14. Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991). 15. Timothy W. Luke, ‘Toward a North American Critical Theory,’ Telos 101 (Fall 1994a): 101–8. 16. Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign (St. Louis, MO: Telos Press, 1981). 17. Jean Baudrillard, The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures
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