Quote: "A critical theory is any approach to humanities and social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to attempt to reveal, critique, and challenge power structures."
An interdisciplinary approach to understanding society and culture, often drawing on insights from Marxism, psychoanalysis, and other fields.
Marxism: A socio-economic theory that argues that society is divided into classes based on their relationship to production, and that historical change is driven by class struggle.
Postcolonial theory: An analytical framework that examines the relationship between colonized peoples and their colonizers, and the impact of colonialism and imperialism on culture, politics, and society.
Feminist theory: A theoretical approach that critically examines gender, patriarchy, and power structures, and seeks to challenge and transform oppressive social norms.
Queer theory: An approach to understanding gender and sexuality that challenges traditional binary categories and explores intersectionality and fluidity.
Race and Ethnicity: A critical framework that analyzes the ways in which race and ethnicity intersect with other social categories, such as gender, class, and sexuality, and how these intersections shape cultural and social experiences.
Structuralism and Post-structuralism: Approaches to literary and cultural analysis that focus on uncovering the underlying structures and systems that shape meaning, and on how these structures are constantly shifting and unstable.
Psychoanalytic theory: An approach to understanding the human psyche that focuses on unconscious desires and drives, and on how they manifest in cultural expressions.
Cultural studies: A multidisciplinary field that analyzes cultural forms and practices, including literature, film, music, and visual art, as well as popular culture and everyday life.
Critical race theory: An interdisciplinary approach that examines the ways in which race intersects with legal, political, and cultural structures, and how these intersections result in systemic inequality.
Postmodernism: A cultural and philosophical movement that challenges modernist approaches to knowledge and meaning, and emphasizes the role of language, discourse, and power in shaping meaning.
Deconstruction: A critical approach that seeks to expose contradictions and interruptions in language and meaning, and destabilize the fixed and binary categories that structure cultural expression.
Hermeneutics: The study of interpretation, including how we arrive at meaning through the interaction of text, reader, and context.
Reader-response theory: An approach to literary and cultural analysis that emphasizes the role of the reader in creating meaning, and that explores the ways in which meaning is shaped by the cultural and social contexts in which it is encountered.
Ideology: A set of beliefs and values that shape and often conceal power structures and social relations in culture and society.
Hegemony: The process by which dominant groups maintain power over subordinate groups through cultural and social means, including the production and consumption of culture.
Marxism: It critiques capitalism and the class structure, promotes the idea that economic factors have a fundamental influence on culture and society.
Feminism: It examines gender, patriarchy, and the oppression of marginalized genders in society.
Postcolonial theory: Postcolonial theory investigate power structures between colonized and colonizers in order to understand the impact of colonialism, The theory looks at post-colonial cultural formation, processes of thinking and representation, and how postcolonial voices articulate their own identity and challenge the legacy of colonialism.
Queer theory: Queer theory explores gender, sexuality, and societal norms in the context of identity formation, cultural representation, and political activism.
African-American studies: African-American studies examines the experiences of black people in America, including their history, literature, social, political, and cultural issues.
Disability studies: Disability studies explores the social constructs surrounding disability from a cultural and literary perspective.
Critical race theory: Critical race theory examines the intersectionality of race, class, and gender, as they relate to systems of power and oppression.
Cultural studies: Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that analyzes the cultural practices, values, and beliefs of societies, focusing on cultural production, consumption, and the creation of meaning.
Psychoanalytic theory: Psychoanalytic theory utilizes Freudian or Jungian theories to explore the underlying psychological motivations and influences on cultural production, perception, and interpretation.
Postmodernism: Postmodernism critiques modernism, challenging established cultural norms, and promoting a greater appreciation for diversity in cultural expression.
Quote: "it argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions rather than from individuals."
Quote: "With roots in sociology and literary criticism..."
Quote: "The Frankfurt School theoreticians Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, and Max Horkheimer..."
Quote: "Critical theory finds applications in various fields of study, including psychoanalysis, sociology, history, communication theory, philosophy, and feminist theory."
Quote: "Critical Theory (capitalized) is a school of thought practiced by the Frankfurt School theoreticians [...] and on the other any philosophical approach that seeks to liberate people from all forms of oppression..."
Quote: "Philosophical approaches within this broader definition include feminism, critical race theory, post-structuralism, queer theory, and forms of postcolonialism."
Quote: "Horkheimer described a theory as critical insofar as it seeks 'to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them'."
Quote: "Although a product of modernism, and although many of the progenitors of Critical Theory were skeptical of postmodernism, Critical Theory is one of the major components of both modern and postmodern thought..."
Quote: "In addition to its roots in the first-generation Frankfurt School, critical theory has also been influenced by György Lukács and Antonio Gramsci."
Quote: "Additionally, second-generation Frankfurt School scholars have been influential, notably Jürgen Habermas."
Quote: "In Habermas's work, critical theory transcended its theoretical roots in German idealism and progressed closer to American pragmatism."
Quote: "Concern for social 'base and superstructure' is one of the remaining Marxist philosophical concepts in much contemporary critical theory."