Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides Book 0)

The inheritances of Marxism in critical theory are: 1. Tension of idealism versus materialism (the autonomy versus social construction of a text). 2. A hidden or camouflaged unconscious. 3. Interventionism: a sense that critical theory can make a difference.

Once again, we notice Marx’s critical insistence on the hidden: religion, politics, law, etc. – everything cultural that we “live by” – disguises and renders perfectly natural an economic means of production that is unnatural.

we are witnessing the rise of “scientific” forms of social control by the authorities. The lives of individuals are to be strictly regimented.

Alienation is a process by which mind – as the consciousness of a subject (thesis) – becomes an object of thought for itself (antithesis). And thereby the human mind constantly progresses to the next higher stage of synthesis and self-consciousness.

Society always consists of an economic base or infrastructure, and a superstructure. The superstructure comprises everything cultural – religion, politics, law, education, the arts, etc. – which is determined by a specific economy (slave-based, feudal, mercantile, capitalist etc.).

Capitalist societies are adept at disseminating their ideological beliefs without having to resort to force. Ideology is passed on at the level of ideas, as much as by economic pressures (often unwittingly by the individuals involved).

But a print of a Vincent van Gogh, no matter how high quality its reproduction, is not the real thing. In Benjamin’s words, the print lacks the original’s “presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be”; or, as he proceeds to call it, its “aura”.

In deconstruction, we move from system-building to system-dismantling. Derrida’s major concern is to direct our attention to the many gaps in our systems of discourse which, try as we may, we can never quite disguise. Deconstruction is a philosophy which very self-consciously sets out to deflate philosophical pretensions about our ability to order

Narrative only becomes problematical when it is worked up into a “grand” form that claims authoritarian or even totalitarian precedence over the multitude of “little” narratives (individual or small local group) that any society contains.