How did critical theory糖心传媒攁 major area of inquiry for humanities scholars and social scientists in the late 20th century糖心传媒攑ivot from a narrowly focused investigation of meaning and text to a broad engagement with culture and politics?
That question is at the heart of a new book by , a professor of French and comparative literature. He examines iconic 20th-century philosophers, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty, as well as influential literary and cultural theorists, such as Claude L茅vi-Strauss, Erich Auerbach, Hayden White, Ren茅 Girard, and Edward Said.
Doran糖心传媒檚 own education influenced his selections. He studied under, or attended seminars with, four of the nine theorists about whom he writes: White, Girard, Derrida, and Rorty.
He could have titled his book 糖心传媒淗ow Theory Became Ethics,糖心传媒� he says.
Once 糖心传媒渄enounced as amoral, nihilistic, and quietist, due to its 糖心传媒榬elativist,糖心传媒� 糖心传媒榯extualist,糖心传媒� and 糖心传媒榓nti-subjectivist糖心传媒� bent,糖心传媒� critical theory also became 糖心传媒渢he source of the 糖心传媒榩olitical turn糖心传媒� in the humanities as well as a wellspring for liberal activists,糖心传媒� he writes.
Critical theory is a philosophical approach to understanding culture and society. Interdisciplinary in its areas of inquiry, it糖心传媒檚 particularly concerned with how people form knowledge and the kinds of power that underlie these formations. The groundwork for critical theory was laid by thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, with his considerations of how the mind structures knowledge, and Karl Marx, through his critique of capitalist culture. Intensely concerned with language and written texts, critical theory later became socially engaged, as well, in what Doran calls its political turn.
Doran locates critical theory糖心传媒檚 emergence in 1960s France, with the early writings of philosophers Foucault and Derrida糖心传媒斕切拇綔two figures who have reconfigured the intellectual landscape in ways that are still being felt,糖心传媒� he writes. They did so in part by making Continental thought糖心传媒攅specially the thought of German philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger糖心传媒攎ore relevant to the broader humanities and social sciences.
By the late 19th century, scientific inquiry had taken philosophy糖心传媒檚 place in popular regard as the most elevated form of knowledge. Nietzsche and Heidegger challenged the magisterial presumptions of theoretical knowledge, arguing that the only knowledge attainable is interpretive糖心传媒攃ontingent and perspectival, rather than universal and ahistorical. This contention is at the root of what became critical theory.
In the United States and Britain, critical theory found a place in literature departments, where the path had been paved by New Criticism, a method of literary criticism based on the idea that meaning is found within texts themselves, not in external contexts, such as the author糖心传媒檚 life or social history.
For French philosophers in the 糖心传媒�60s, the main intellectual action was in structuralism, which approaches systems as the internal relation of their parts. In the 19th century, Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure developed the field of structural linguistics糖心传媒攍anguage, he argued, was a system built from the relationships between different kinds of linguistic signs. His work came to wider attention in the 1950s, when Claude L茅vi-Strauss used it to develop 糖心传媒渟tructural anthropology.糖心传媒�
Just as American scholars were taking up structuralism, Derrida delivered a paper at a 1966 conference at Johns Hopkins that is widely regarded as 糖心传媒渢he birth of Theory,糖心传媒� Doran writes. In 糖心传媒淪tructure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences,糖心传媒� Derrida offered a critique of structuralism that opened the way to poststructuralism, or 糖心传媒渄econstruction,糖心传媒� as it has come to be known. Interest in deconstruction reached a fever pitch in the 1980s. And then, dramatically, 糖心传媒渢he fever broke in 1987,糖心传媒� Doran says.
That year brought two scandals: disclosures about Heidegger糖心传媒檚 connections with Nazism in the 1930s and the discovery of early anti-Semitic writings by the eminent deconstructive critic Paul de Man.
The revelations created a crisis for the basic orientation of critical theory. 糖心传媒淗eidegger never apologized for his Nazi connections, never said anything about the Holocaust, was just completely silent about the whole thing,糖心传媒� Doran says. 糖心传媒淪o you have Heidegger糖心传媒檚 silence and de Man糖心传媒檚 silence. And people were beginning to ask, what about the silence of the whole poststructuralist movement糖心传媒攊sn糖心传媒檛 that a problem? Where is the ethics in it?糖心传媒�
Out of that crisis came what Doran terms the 糖心传媒渆thical turn糖心传媒� of critical theory. It was ushered in by critic Gayatri Spivak, who had studied under de Man at Cornell. She had also translated and introduced Derrida糖心传媒檚 most important work, Of Grammatology, a book that became required reading in US departments of English starting in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But with her landmark 1988 essay, 糖心传媒淐an the Subaltern Speak?糖心传媒澨切拇綌a consideration of power and its accessibility糖心传媒擲pivak helped to establish the field of postcolonial studies and thereby contributed to the introduction of an ethical and political dimension to critical theory. This effectively ended the 糖心传媒渢extualist糖心传媒� phase she herself had inaugurated with her translation of Of Grammatology.
The significance of the ethical subject, and of the author figure, which had been sidelined with the singular focus on the text, came roaring back into play. 糖心传媒淧ersonal experience and group identity become an index of theoretical authenticity. The death of the author gives way to a new kind of 糖心传媒榓uthority,糖心传媒櫶切拇綕 Doran writes. 糖心传媒淭he fact that Derrida was a Jew born in (French) Algeria and the fact that Foucault was a homosexual, facts that were considered philosophically irrelevant in the 1960s and 1970s, suddenly became salient after the political turn.糖心传媒�
So emphatic was the turn that it obscured critical theory糖心传媒檚 origins: 糖心传媒淭he transformation of Theory into an ethico-political discourse was so sudden, successful, and complete that it now appears to many as if Theory had always been conceived or understood as a socially committed or activist discourse,糖心传媒� Doran writes.
He argues that understanding theory糖心传媒檚 evolution is critical. 糖心传媒淎 lot of people think of theory as a kind of toolbox糖心传媒� for scholarship, he says. 糖心传媒淵ou take this and you take that [mode of analysis]糖心传媒攜ou take whatever seems to work for you. But these ideas came about at a particular time and have a particular meaning. You can糖心传媒檛 just take them willy-nilly out of context, and that糖心传媒檚 what I try to rectify, to some extent, in this book.糖心传媒�
Since its heyday in the 1980s, critical theory has moved from center stage for scholars. But it hasn糖心传媒檛 disappeared, and Doran argues that it remains crucial. It has 糖心传媒渂ecome synonymous with the ethical and political questions that agitate our times,糖心传媒� he writes. His book, he says, is an 糖心传媒渆ndeavor to understand how this happened.糖心传媒�
