| critical theory of language: The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition Julia Herschensohn, Martha Young-Scholten, 2018-09-06 What is language and how can we investigate its acquisition by children or adults? What perspectives exist from which to view acquisition? What internal constraints and external factors shape acquisition? What are the properties of interlanguage systems? This comprehensive 31-chapter handbook is an authoritative survey of second language acquisition (SLA). Its multi-perspective synopsis on recent developments in SLA research provides significant contributions by established experts and widely recognized younger talent. It covers cutting edge and emerging areas of enquiry not treated elsewhere in a single handbook, including third language acquisition, electronic communication, incomplete first language acquisition, alphabetic literacy and SLA, affect and the brain, discourse and identity. Written to be accessible to newcomers as well as experienced scholars of SLA, the Handbook is organised into six thematic sections, each with an editor-written introduction. |
| critical theory of language: Language, Power and Ideology Ruth Wodak, 1989-01-01 The topic of Language and Ideology has increasingly gained importance in the linguistic sciences. The general aim of critical linguistics is the exploration of the mechanisms of power which establish inequality, through the systematic analysis of political discourse (written or oral). This reader contains papers on a variety of topics, all related to each other through explicit discussions on the notion of ideology from an interdisciplinary approach with illustrative analyses of texts from the media, newspapers, schoolbooks, pamphlets, talkshows, speeches concerning language policy in Nazi-Germany, in Italofascism, and also policies prevalent nowadays. Among the interesting subjects studied are the jargon of the student movement of 1968, speeches of politicians, racist and sexist discourse, and the language of the green movement. Because of the enormous influence of the media nowadays, the explicit analysis of the mechanisms of manipulation, suggestion, and persuasion inherent in language or about language behaviour and strategies of discourse are of social relevance and of interest to all scholars of social sciences, to readers in all educational institutions, to analysts of political discourse, and to critical readers at large. |
| critical theory of language: Language Inequality and Distortion in Intercultural Communication Yukio Tsuda, 1986-01-01 This study sheds light on the problem of communicative inequality, neglected both by linguists and communication scholars, among speakers of different languages. It provides a four-step Critical Theory analysis of language-based inequality and distortion between speakers of a few dominant languages, especially English, and speakers of minority languages in the context of international and intercultural communication. Based on a theoretical framework of Distorted Communication developed by J. Habermas and C. Müller, the analysis focuses on a critical description, definition, and interpretation of Distorted Intercultural Communication, and exposes the ideology that legitimates linguistic inequality and distortion in communication. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory Max Horkheimer, 1972-01-01 These essays, written in the 1930s and 1940s, represent a first selection in English from the major work of the founder of the famous Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. Horkheimer's writings are essential to an understanding of the intellectual background of the New Left and the to much current social-philosophical thought, including the work of Herbert Marcuse. Apart from their historical significance and even from their scholarly eminence, these essays contain an immediate relevance only now becoming fully recognized. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Applied Linguistics Alastair Pennycook, 2001 This accessible guide and introduction to critical applied linguistics provides a clear overview, highlighting problems, debates, and competing views in language education, literacy, discourse analysis, language in the workplace, translation and other language-related domains. Covering both critical theory and domains of practice, the book is organized around five themes: the politics of knowledge, the politics of language, the politics of texts, the politics of pedagogy, and the politics of difference. It is an important text for anyone involved in applied linguistics, TESOL, language education, or other language-related fields. |
| critical theory of language: Considering Emotions in Critical English Language Teaching Sarah Benesch, 2013-03-01 Groundbreaking in the ways it makes new connections among emotion, critical theory, and pedagogy, this book explores the role of students’ and teachers’ emotions in college instruction, illuminating key literacy and identity issues faced by immigrant students learning English in postsecondary institutions. Offering a rich blend of, and interplay between, theory and practice, it asks: How have emotions and affect been theorized from a critical perspective, and how might these theories be applied to English language teaching and learning? What do complex and shifting emotions, such as hope, disappointment, indignation, and compassion, have to do with English language teaching and learning in the neoliberal context in public universities? How might attention to emotions lead to deeper understanding of classroom interactions and more satisfying educational experiences for English language teachers and students? These questions are addressed not just theoretically, but also practically with examples from college classes of assigned readings, student writing, and classroom talk in which various emotions came into play. Thought-provoking, accessible, and useful, this is a must-read book for scholars, students, and teachers in the field of English language teaching. |
| critical theory of language: Writing Theory and Critical Theory John Clifford, John Schilb, 1994 Writing Theory and Critical Theory discusses the growing body of work linking composition studies and literary studies. Enlisting the strategies of deconstruction, hermeneutics, postmodernism, feminism, neo-Marxism, neopragmatism, psychoanalysis, reader-response criticism, and cultural studies, the twenty-seven contributors investigate the resources that critical theory can bring to an examination of discourse. Composition teachers, critical theorists, and writing program administrators will find this collection a provocative and insightful overview of the field of composition studies. |
| critical theory of language: Language Policies in Education James W. Tollefson, 2013 This new edition of takes a fresh look at enduring questions at the heart of fundamental debates about the role of schools in society, the links between education and employment, and conflicts between linguistic minorities and mainstream populations. |
| critical theory of language: Language and Production Gyorgy Markus, 2012-12-06 In Language and Production, Gyorgy Markus presents us with a pro found critique of contemporary social theory: of the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences; of the philosophy of language; of hermeneutics and critical theory; and finally, of Marx and of Marxisms. The sweep of Markus' project is complemented by the extraordinary detail of his analysis and the elaborately developed argument which gives the work its clear logical structure: it is a dialectical work. Markus begins with a critique of the paradigm of language and of that scientific ra tionality modeled on language, as frameworks for the understanding of social reality, and for a rational 'science of society' . After revealing what he takes to be the essential failure of that paradigm in its positivist ver sion (in the work of Sir Karl Popper, who, he argues, remains within the positivist framework despite his differences with other positivists) - Markus examines the alternative interpretations of that paradigm in the hermeneutic tradition from Dilthey through Heidegger and Gadamer, and then in the structural anthropology of Claude Levi-Strauss and in the philosophy of language of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In all of these approaches, Markus sees a systematic flaw in the at tempt to frame human action as one or another form of linguistic prac tice, or even to read human self-constitution as essentially linguistic. |
| critical theory of language: The Language of Drama David Birch, 1991 This book is about the critical strategies that can be used to understand the dynamic processes involved in writing, reading, analysis, rehearsal, production, and reception of drama in both the classroom and the professional theater. |
| critical theory of language: Dialogue and Critical Discourse Michael Steven Macovski, 2023 |
| critical theory of language: Language, Power and Ideology Ruth Wodak, 1989-01-01 The topic of Language and Ideology has increasingly gained importance in the linguistic sciences. The general aim of critical linguistics is the exploration of the mechanisms of power which establish inequality, through the systematic analysis of political discourse (written or oral). This reader contains papers on a variety of topics, all related to each other through explicit discussions on the notion of ideology from an interdisciplinary approach with illustrative analyses of texts from the media, newspapers, schoolbooks, pamphlets, talkshows, speeches concerning language policy in Nazi-Germany, in Italofascism, and also policies prevalent nowadays. Among the interesting subjects studied are the jargon of the student movement of 1968, speeches of politicians, racist and sexist discourse, and the language of the green movement. Because of the enormous influence of the media nowadays, the explicit analysis of the mechanisms of manipulation, suggestion, and persuasion inherent in language or about language behaviour and strategies of discourse are of social relevance and of interest to all scholars of social sciences, to readers in all educational institutions, to analysts of political discourse, and to critical readers at large. |
| critical theory of language: Language Inequality and Distortion in Intercultural Communication Yukio Tsuda, 1986-01-01 This study sheds light on the problem of communicative inequality, neglected both by linguists and communication scholars, among speakers of different languages. It provides a four-step Critical Theory analysis of language-based inequality and distortion between speakers of a few dominant languages, especially English, and speakers of minority languages in the context of international and intercultural communication. Based on a theoretical framework of “Distorted Communication” developed by J. Habermas and C. Müller, the analysis focuses on a critical description, definition, and interpretation of “Distorted Intercultural Communication”, and exposes the ideology that legitimates linguistic inequality and distortion in communication. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction Stephen Eric Bronner, 2017-09-22 Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose -- and, if at all possible, cure -- the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen Eric Bronner provides sketches of leading representatives of the critical tradition (such as George Lukács and Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas) as well as many of its seminal texts and empirical investigations. This Very Short Introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors. Bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency, alienation and reification, the culture industry and repressive tolerance, non-identity and utopia. He argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hidden transformative possibilities. In this newly updated second edition, Bronner targets new academic interests, broadens his argument, and adapts it to a global society amid the resurgence of right-wing politics and neo-fascist movements. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory: The Key Concepts Dino Felluga, 2015-04-17 Critical Theory: The Key Concepts introduces over 300 widely-used terms, categories and ideas drawing upon well-established approaches like new historicism, postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and narratology as well as many new critical theories of the last twenty years such as Actor-Network Theory, Global Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Speculative Realism. This book explains the key concepts at the heart of a wide range of influential theorists from Agamben to Žižek. Entries range from concise definitions to longer more explanatory essays and include terms such as: Aesthetics Desire Dissensus Dromocracy Hegemony Ideology Intersectionality Late Capitalism Performativity Race Suture Featuring cross-referencing throughout, a substantial bibliography and index, Critical Theory: The Key Concepts is an accessible and easy-to-use guide. This book is an invaluable introduction covering a wide range of subjects for anyone who is studying or has an interest in critical theory (past and present). |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and The English Teacher Nick Peim, 2002-03-11 In this radical exploration, Nick Peim, himself a practising English teacher, shows how teachers can use critical theory to bring students' own experience back into the subject. The author explains how the insights of discourse theory, psychoanalysis, semiotics and deconstruction can be used on the material of modern culture as well as on and in oral work. The book is written in a style which even those with no background in critical theory will find approachable, and arguments are backed up with practical classroom examples. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook Keith Green, Jill LeBihan, 2006-10-19 Critical Teory and Practice answers lots of questions, but also stimulates new ones. Its tailor-made combination of survey, reader and workbook is ideal for the beginning - perhaps even bewildered - student of literary theory. The work is divided into seven chapters, each of which contains guiding commentary, examples from literary and critical works, and a variety of exercises to provoke and engage you. Each chapter includes a glossary and annotated selection of suggested further reading. There is also a full bibliography. The authors cover the key issues and debates of literary theory, including: * Language, Linguistics and Literature * Structures of Literature * Literature and History * Subjectivity, Psychoanalysis and Criticism * Reading, Writing and Reception * Women, Literature and Criticism * Literature, Criticism and Cultural Identity Critical Theory and Practice is an refreshingly clear, up-to-date and eminently readable introduction to the subject. It not only guides you through the terminology and gives you a selection of the key passages to read, it also helps you engage with the theory and apply it in practice. |
| critical theory of language: Using Critical Theory Lois Tyson, 2011-11-16 Explaining both why theory is important and how to use it, Lois Tyson introduces beginning students of literature to this often daunting area in a friendly and approachable style. The new edition of this textbook is clearly structured with chapters based on major theories that students are expected to cover in their studies. Key features include: coverage of major theories including psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, lesbian/gay/queer theories, postcolonial theory, African American theory, and a new chapter on New Criticism (formalism) practical demonstrations of how to use these theories on short literary works selected from canonical authors including William Faulkner and Alice Walker a new chapter on reader-response theory that shows students how to use their personal responses to literature while avoiding typical pitfalls new sections on cultural criticism for each chapter new ‘further practice’ and ‘further reading’ sections for each chapter a useful next step appendix that suggests additional literary titles for extra practice. Comprehensive, easy to use, and fully updated throughout, Using Critical Theory is the ideal first step for students beginning degrees in literature, composition and cultural studies. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and Classroom Talk Robert Young, 1992 An application of Young's Habermasian critical theory of education to classroom communication problems of teachers in schools, with a special focus on the question/answer cycle and its educational role. The book uses classroom transcripts extensively in the analysis. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and Performance Janelle G. Reinelt, Joseph R. Roach, 2007 Updated and enlarged, this groundbreaking collection surveys the major critical currents and approaches in drama, theater, and performance |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and Transformative Learning Wang, Victor X., 2018-06-04 Engaging in genuine dialogue and authentic communication is essential for teachers to assist students’ successes and help them further their education through refining critical thinking skills beyond the classroom. Critical Theory and Transformative Learning is a critical scholarly resource that examines and contrasts the key concepts related to critical approaches in educational settings. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics including repressive tolerance, online teaching, and adult education, this book is geared toward educators, administrators, academicians, and researchers seeking current research on transformative learning and addressing the interconnectedness of important theories and praxis. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory Today Lois Tyson, 2012-09-10 Critical Theory Today is the essential introduction to contemporary criticial theory. It provides clear, simple explanations and concrete examples of complex concepts, making a wide variety of commonly used critical theories accessible to novices without sacrificing any theoretical rigor or thoroughness. This new edition provides in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African American criticism, and postcolonial criticism. The chapters provide an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts; a list of specific questions critics who use that theory ask about literary texts; an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory; a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works; and a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading. |
| critical theory of language: Social Theory and Language Glyn Williams, 2020-06-07 This volume offers a comprehensive treatment of the historical developments underpinning our present understandings of the relationship between language and the social by integrating the study of language with key strands of sociological theory.// The book posits that theory conditions how objects are constructed and in turn the meanings allocated to them and explores the implications for the relationship between language and the social. The volume traces this relationship from its foundations in the work of Enlightenment philosophers, in which sociology and linguistics emerged as coherent disciplines. Taking this work as a point of departure, the book examines the unfolding of the interplay between language and the social across developments in sociological theory in subsequent eras, encompassing such strands as Marxism, functionalism, interactionism, anti-foundationalism, poststructuralism, critical theory, and critical realism. A final chapter turns its eye toward contemporary sociolinguistics and its treatment of different sociological perspectives and future directions for its continued development. // Reflecting on trajectories in sociological theory toward informing our understanding of the relationship between language and the social today, this book will be key reading for students and scholars in sociolinguistics, philosophy of language, and those working in sociology and geography with an interest in language issues. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory in Russia and the West Alastair Renfrew, Galin Tihanov, 2009-12-04 This book, with contributions from some of the best-known and most visible specialists in the field, re-examines the significant transfers, cross-fertilisations and synergies of cultural and literary theory between Russia and the West, from the 1920s through to the present day. |
| critical theory of language: Mute Speech Jacques Rancière, 2011 Jacques Ranciere has continually unsettled political discourse, particularly through his questioning of aesthetic distributions of the sensible, which configure the limits of what can be seen and said. Widely recognized as a seminal work in Ranciere's corpus, the translation of which is long overdue, Mute Speech is an intellectual tour de force proposing a new framework for thinking about the history of art and literature. Ranciere argues that our current notion of literature is a relatively recent creation, having first appeared in the wake of the French Revolution and with the rise of Romanticism. In its rejection of the system of representational hierarchies that had constituted belles-letters, literature is founded upon a radical equivalence in which all things are possible expressions of the life of a people. With an analysis reaching back to Plato, Aristotle, the German Romantics, Vico, and Cervantes and concluding with brilliant readings of Flaubert, Mallarme, and Proust, Ranciere demonstrates the uncontrollable democratic impulse lying at the heart of literature's still-vital capacity for reinvention.--Publisher description. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and Practice Keith Green, Jill LeBihan, 1996 This is an up-to-date introduction to critical theory. It guides the reader through the terminology, gives a selection of the key passages to read, and helps to engage the theory and apply it in practice. |
| critical theory of language: The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory Beverley Best, Werner Bonefeld, Chris O′Kane, 2018-06-04 The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory expounds the development of critical theory from its founding thinkers to its contemporary formulations in an interdisciplinary setting. It maps the terrain of a critical social theory, expounding its distinctive character vis-a-vis alternative theoretical perspectives, exploring its theoretical foundations and developments, conceptualising its subject matters both past and present, and signalling its possible future in a time of great uncertainty. Taking a distinctively theoretical, interdisciplinary, international and contemporary perspective on the topic, this wide-ranging collection of chapters is arranged thematically over three volumes: Volume I: Key Texts and Contributions to a Critical Theory of Society Volume II: Themes Volume III: Contexts This Handbook is essential reading for scholars and students in the field, showcasing the scholarly rigor, intellectual acuteness and negative force of critical social theory, past and present. |
| critical theory of language: The Critical Turn in Language and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy Maria Dasli, Adriana Raquel Díaz, 2016-09-13 This edited research volume explores the development of what can be described as the ‘critical turn’ in intercultural communication pedagogy, with a particular focus on modern/foreign language education. The main aim is to trace the realisations of this critical turn against a background of unequal power relations, and to illuminate the role that radical culture educators can play in the making of a more democratic and egalitarian social order. The volume takes as a starting point the idea that criticality draws on a number of intellectual traditions, which do not always focus on social and political critique, and argues that because ideological hegemony impacts on the meanings that people create and share, intercultural communication pedagogy ought to locate itself within wider socio-political contexts. With reference points drawn from critical and transnational social theory, critical pedagogy and intercultural theory, contributors to this volume provide readers with powerful ways that show how this can be achieved, and together assess the impact that their understanding of criticality can make on modern/foreign language education. The volume is divided into three major parts, namely: ‘theorising critically’, ‘researching critically’ and ‘teaching critically’. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory in Critical Times Penelope Deutscher, Cristina Lafont, 2017-04-04 We live in critical times. We face a global crisis in economics and finance, a global ecological crisis, and a constant barrage of international disputes. Perhaps most dishearteningly, there seems to be little faith in our ability to address such difficult problems. However, there is also a more positive sense in which these are critical times. The world's current state of flux gives us a unique window of opportunity for shaping a new international order that will allow us to cope with current and future global crises. In Critical Theory in Critical Times, eleven of the most distinguished critical theorists offer new perspectives on recent crises and transformations of the global political and economic order. Essays from Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib, Cristina Lafont, Rainer Forst, Wendy Brown, Christoph Menke, Nancy Fraser, Rahel Jaeggi, Amy Allen, Penelope Deutscher, and Charles Mills address pressing issues including international human rights and democratic sovereignty, global neoliberalism, novel approaches to the critique of capitalism, critical theory's Eurocentric heritage, and new directions offered by critical race theory and postcolonial studies. Sharpening the conceptual tools of critical theory, the contributors to Critical Theory in Critical Times reveal new ways of expanding the diverse traditions of the Frankfurt School in response to some of the most urgent and important challenges of our times. |
| critical theory of language: Language in History Dr Tony Crowley, Tony Crowley, 2013-02-01 In Language in History, Tony Crowley provides the analytical tools for answering such questions. Using a radical re-reading of Saussure and Bahktin, he demonstrates, in four case studies, the ways in which language has been used to construct social and cultural identity in Britain and Ireland. For example, he examines the ways in which language was employed to construct a bourgeois public sphere in 18th Century England, and he reveals how language is still being used in contemporary Ireland to articulate national and political aspirations and why the Irish language died. By bringing together linguistic and critical theory with his own sharp historical and political consciousness, Tony Crowley provides a new agenda for language study; one which acknowledges the fact that writing about history has always been determined by the historical context, and by issues of race, class and gender. Language in History represents a major contribution to the field, and an essential text for anyone interested in language, discourse and communication. |
| critical theory of language: Contemporary Critical Theory Donald G. Marshall, 1993 Contemporary Critical Theory is an up-to-date overview of significant theories and theorists in literary studies. The volume contains introductory essays on a range of critical theories-from Russian formalism and New Criticism to postcolonial studies and the new historicism-and lists nearly two thousand journals and books (including translations) published in English. Many of the entries provide brief annotations. Marshall summarizes the work of fifty prominent theorists, such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Julia Kristeva, and Jacques Lacan. The bibliography and author summaries are arranged topically, but listings are cross-referenced to help users locate books that discuss a variety of approaches. An index of authors and translators completes the volume. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theories in Education Thomas Popkewitz, Lynn Fendler, 1999-03-16 This book examines critical theories in education research from various points of view in order to critique the relations of power and knowledge in education and schooling practices. It addresses social injustices in the field of education, while at the same time questioning traditional standards of critical theory. Drawing on recent social and lit |
| critical theory of language: Heritage Language Teaching Sergio Loza, Sara M. Beaudrie, 2021-11-29 This innovative, timely text introduces the theory, research, and classroom application of critical approaches to the teaching of minoritized heritage learners, foregrounding sociopolitical concerns in language education. Beaudrie and Loza open with a global analysis, and expert contributors connect a focus on speakers of Spanish as a heritage language in the United States to broad issues in heritage language education in other contexts – offering an overview of key concepts and theoretical issues, practical pedagogical guidance, and field-advancing suggestions for research projects. This is an invaluable resource for advanced students and scholars of applied linguistics and education, as well as language program administrators. |
| critical theory of language: Language and Reason Maeve Cooke, 1994 Readers of Juergen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action and his later social theory know that the idea of communicative rationality is central to his version of critical theory. This text provides a general introduction to Habermas's programme of formal pragmatics - his reconstruction of the universal principles of possible understanding that, he argues, operate in everyday communicative practices. Philosophers of language should discover connections between Habermas's account of language and validity (especially his theory of meaning) and their own concerns. This work introduces the theory of communicative action as the background against which the programme of formal pragmatics must be understood. It then outlines the idea of communicative rationality as a postmetaphysical yet nondefeatist conception of reason. Two central chapters detail the connections Habermas asserts between language and validity, with particular attention to his theory of validity claims and his pragmatic theory of meaning. A final chapter looks at Habermas's account of the pathologies of modern society and at communicative rationality as a yardstick for measuring these pathologies. -- from http://www.amazon.ca (August 22, 2011) |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory and Democratic Vision Arnold L. Farr, 2009 dialogue with what Farr calls recent liberation philosophies such as feminism and African-American philosophy. All of these forms ofphilosophy are driven by a democratic impulse whereby we realize that there are many social groups that have been excluded from the democratic decision-making process. --Book Jacket. |
| critical theory of language: Introducing Critical Theory Stuart Sim, Borin Van Loon, 2001 This book provides a route through a jungle of competing theories. It puts into context recent developments by situating them within the longer-term tradition of critical analysis -- back to the rise of Marxism. |
| critical theory of language: Critical Theory Douglas Tallack, 2014-07-15 An anthology of readings and extracts providing a comprehensive introduction to the main schools and positions of critical theory. The book is divided into five sections; structuralism and poststructuralism, psychoanalytical theory, Marxism, feminism, and post-foundational ethics and politics. It includes a general introduction covering the field of critical theory and identifies founding theorists and movements with a bibliography and notes. |
| critical theory of language: The Mathematical Imagination Matthew Handelman, 2019-03-05 This book offers an archeology of the undeveloped potential of mathematics for critical theory. As Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno first conceived of the critical project in the 1930s, critical theory steadfastly opposed the mathematization of thought. Mathematics flattened thought into a dangerous positivism that led reason to the barbarism of World War II. The Mathematical Imagination challenges this narrative, showing how for other German-Jewish thinkers, such as Gershom Scholem, Franz Rosenzweig, and Siegfried Kracauer, mathematics offered metaphors to negotiate the crises of modernity during the Weimar Republic. Influential theories of poetry, messianism, and cultural critique, Handelman shows, borrowed from the philosophy of mathematics, infinitesimal calculus, and geometry in order to refashion cultural and aesthetic discourse. Drawn to the austerity and muteness of mathematics, these friends and forerunners of the Frankfurt School found in mathematical approaches to negativity strategies to capture the marginalized experiences and perspectives of Jews in Germany. Their vocabulary, in which theory could be both mathematical and critical, is missing from the intellectual history of critical theory, whether in the work of second generation critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas or in contemporary critiques of technology. The Mathematical Imagination shows how Scholem, Rosenzweig, and Kracauer’s engagement with mathematics uncovers a more capacious vision of the critical project, one with tools that can help us intervene in our digital and increasingly mathematical present. The Mathematical Imagination is available from the publisher on an open-access basis. |
| critical theory of language: Cynical Theories Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay, 2020-05-05 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller! Times, Sunday Times, and Financial Times Book-of-the-Year Selection! Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga or cook Chinese food? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only white people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed so quickly to challenge the very logic of Western society? In this probing and intrepid volume, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma that informs these ideas, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Today this dogma is recognizable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media dogpiles, as by its tenets, which are all too often embraced as axiomatic in mainstream media: knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are sites of oppressive power play; and language is dangerous. As Pluckrose and Lindsay warn, the unchecked proliferation of these anti-Enlightenment beliefs present a threat not only to liberal democracy but also to modernity itself. While acknowledging the need to challenge the complacency of those who think a just society has been fully achieved, Pluckrose and Lindsay break down how this often-radical activist scholarship does far more harm than good, not least to those marginalized communities it claims to champion. They also detail its alarmingly inconsistent and illiberal ethics. Only through a proper understanding of the evolution of these ideas, they conclude, can those who value science, reason, and consistently liberal ethics successfully challenge this harmful and authoritarian orthodoxy—in the academy, in culture, and beyond. |
| critical theory of language: Kierkegaard and Critical Theory Marcia Morgan, 2012-12-13 Kierkegaard's impact on the development of critical theory has received scant study; it is the aim of the book to fill this scholarly lacuna. Kierkegaard and Critical Theory seeks to expose the complexity not only of Kierkegaard but of the Frankfurt School and their cohort, highlighting the ways in which the Danish religious thinker has been redeemed for a multiculture activist ethics in spirit with the fundamental aims of the Frankfurt School. |
CRITICAL Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of CRITICAL is inclined to criticize severely and unfavorably. How to use critical in a sentence.
CRITICAL | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
CRITICAL definition: 1. saying that someone or something is bad or wrong: 2. giving or relating to opinions or…. Learn more.
Critical Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary
CRITICAL meaning: 1 : expressing criticism or disapproval; 2 : of or relating to the judgments of critics about books, movies, art, etc.
CRITICAL definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
If a person is critical or in a critical condition in hospital, they are seriously ill.
Critical - definition of critical by The Free Dictionary
If you are critical of someone or something, you show that you disapprove of them. When critical has this meaning, it can be used in front of a noun or after a linking verb.
What does critical mean? - Definitions.net
Critical can be defined as a thorough and analytical evaluation or examination of something, particularly by making judgments or forming opinions based on careful assessment and …
What Does Critical Mean? - The Word Counter
Aug 23, 2021 · What does the word critical mean? According to Collins English Dictionary and the American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary of the English language, the word critical is an …
Critical - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
The adjective critical has several meanings, among them, "vital," "verging on emergency," "tending to point out errors," and "careful."
Critical Definition & Meaning - YourDictionary
Critical definition: Judging severely and finding fault.
CRITICAL Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com
She was one of the great critical journalists of the 20th century. of or relating to critics or criticism, especially of literature, film, music, etc.: Critical appreciation of this author’s work has peaked …
CRITICAL Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of CRITICAL is inclined to criticize severely and unfavorably. How to use critical in a sentence.
CRITICAL | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
CRITICAL definition: 1. saying that someone or something is bad or wrong: 2. giving or relating to opinions or…. Learn more.
Critical Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary
CRITICAL meaning: 1 : expressing criticism or disapproval; 2 : of or relating to the judgments of critics about books, movies, art, etc.
CRITICAL definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
If a person is critical or in a critical condition in hospital, they are seriously ill.
Critical - definition of critical by The Free Dictionary
If you are critical of someone or something, you show that you disapprove of them. When critical has this meaning, it can be used in front of a noun or after a linking verb.
What does critical mean? - Definitions.net
Critical can be defined as a thorough and analytical evaluation or examination of something, particularly by making judgments or forming opinions based on careful assessment and …
What Does Critical Mean? - The Word Counter
Aug 23, 2021 · What does the word critical mean? According to Collins English Dictionary and the American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary of the English language, the word critical is an …
Critical - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
The adjective critical has several meanings, among them, "vital," "verging on emergency," "tending to point out errors," and "careful."
Critical Definition & Meaning - YourDictionary
Critical definition: Judging severely and finding fault.
CRITICAL Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com
She was one of the great critical journalists of the 20th century. of or relating to critics or criticism, especially of literature, film, music, etc.: Critical appreciation of this author’s work has peaked in …
