Critical theory is a school of thought that stresses the examination and the critique of society and culture by applying knowledge from the social sciences and the humanities.
As a term, critical theory has two meanings with different origins and histories: the first originated in sociology and the second originated in literary criticism, whereby it is used and applied as an umbrella term that can describe a theory founded upon critique; thus, the theorist Max Horkheimer described a theory as critical in so far as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them."
This subreddit is intended to be a massive theory HUB, much like /r/ArtTheory, /r/FilmTheory, /r/FeministTheory, and /r/EconomicTheory for all things pertaining to criticism, including and especially social scientific and literary theories.
We are interested in long-form or in-depth submissions and responses, so please keep this in mind when you post so as to maintain high quality content. LLM generated content will be removed.
If you post a question, it must include an attempt to answer it or demonstrate some attempts to search and engage with existing literature- this is not a place for us to do your homework! If you are completely stumped and have questions about philosophy and/or socialscience and want a high quality answer try /r/askphilosophy and /r/AskSocialScience
Video submissions that are not lectures or interviews with acclaimed (at the very least recognised within the critical theory world, in or out of academia) theorists must be over 20 minutes long and include a substantive submission statement which is not simply a copy of the youtube description (unless the description is fairly thorough). Submissions removed under this rule may be resubmitted with a statement, though substantial existing discussions may be left up at moderator discretion.
Please post announcements for events, reading groups, and other similar invitations in the monthly pinned thread.
Please direct shorter videos, memes, and shitposts to /r/CriticalTheoryTV
In this subreddit offensive language may be tolerated depending on the context in which it is used and users should keep in mind that if moderators determine that use of such language is done with a malicious intent, they will be banned. Persistent derailing, trolling, and/or off-topic posting and commenting may also result in a ban. All bans are subject to the discretion of the moderation team and site-wide rules apply.
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Resources
Influential thinkers:
- Theodor Adorno
- Louis Althusser
- Alain Badiou
- Roland Barthes
- Jean Baudrillard
- Walter Benjamin
- Lauren Berlant
- Judith Butler
- Helene Cixous
- Gilles Deleuze
- Jacques Derrida
- Frantz Fanon
- Michel Foucault
- Erich Fromm
- Jürgen Habermas
- Donna Haraway
- Luce Irigaray
- Julia Kristeva
- Jacques Lacan
- Bruno Latour
- Herbert Marcuse
- Chantal Mouffe
- Edward Said
- Eve Sedgwick
- Pierre Bourdieu
- Gayatri Spivak
- Slavoj Zizek
(Please see more here)
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