Introducing the Frankfurt School

The critical theoretical work of "The Frankfurt School" has exercised considerable influence over the humanities and social sciences. The Frankfurt School's systematic critique of mass culture - which provocatively links so many forms of modern life to totalitarianism - produces important and often radical social and political visions. This course will examine the key writings of Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse in order to register the varied ways in which critical theory transforms the meaning and significance of modernity. In particular, we will examine how rethinking both historical experience and certain conceptions of rationality generates provocative and new conceptions of history, reason, nature, desire, and collectivity. As well, we will consider how the legacy of the early Frankfurt School has been carried by contemporary theorists, such as Habermas, Benhabib, Jay, and others. PRS, REA, WRI