Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx perhaps contributed more than all other 19th century philosophers combined to the way in which the nature of the social came to be viewed as phenomenon in the twentieth century. Each of these now widely ready thinkers eventually developed philosophical constructs that places locates the center of the ...
On their second album Solid Gold, the postpunk rock group Gang of Four openly assert their intention to approach pop music as critical theory with a song titled, appropriately enough, “Why Theory?” In answer to their own query of why critical theory should have a place in rock music, the band sings “Each day seems ...
Okay, I know Marxism is still a dirty word in America, though not quite the dirty word it was from the 50’s through the 80’s, but there are still a few of us out there who have seen through the brainwashing techniques of school films, commercials, television and theatrical propaganda that turned Marxism into the ...
The French philosopher Louis Althusser wrote that society transforms individuals into subjects through the use of interpellation. Interpellation is the act of using words and images to both characterize an individual for society, and to enforce the individual to respond accordingly. Perhaps the most interesting thing about William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” ...
The ideology of Pierre Bourdieu can be summarized into three factors: habitus, field and capital. Among these, capital is said to be the primary factor. It is capital that dictates one’s participation in a field, depending on the form and amount of capital one has. However, the manner in which one makes use of his/her ...
If you are college student, at some point you may be called upon to write an English term paper utilizing a specific type of literary theory as your thematic foundation. You may already be familiar with some of these critical theory terms and techniques: formalism, feminism, reader-response, new historicism, psychoanalytic, etc. One of the most ...
There is often some confusion over the difference between religion and ideology. The outcome of a sturdy belief in either religious beliefs or a political ideology can result in the same actions, namely instilling a drive in a person to think and behave in a certain way, but when you pulled out a sander and ...
