Critical Theory Archive: About the Field of Critical Theory
The term "critical theory" was coined as early as the 18th century, but most scholars now think of it as a 20th-century phenomenon that emerged from the Frankfurt School of philosophy and the writings of Kant. It is often used synonymously with the term "literary theory." It is inherently highly interdisciplinary.
Critical theory involves the study of the theoretical basis of such fields as literature, philosophy, art, history, and the social sciences, particularly social theory, politics, and anthropology. It is significant that the works of critical theorists such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, and Judith Butler do not fit into any one discipline. Critical theory is inherently interdisciplinary and permeates most disciplines in humanities and social sciences, so the material in the Critical Theory Archive--as well as that in the other critical theory collections at the UCI Libraries--crosses many disciplines and programs.
“Critical theory” is an ambiguous term. For some it is synonymous with continental philosophy (as opposed to analytical), literary theory, or theory done by literary critics. For others it is the theoretical approach of the continental philosophers and social and cultural thinkers of the Frankfurt School of Social Research which, inspired by the Enlightenment, contrasted it with traditional theory; the latter takes the disinterested natural sciences as its paradigm. According to that School, a rational basis of social existence has not yet occurred. Critical theory is resolute in its interest in human emancipation and therefore is committed to seeking radical social change. Although the latter is the true origin of the term "critical theory", there is no question that at the moment it is a theoretical approach to various problems in the human sciences, particularly of traditional literary theory, aesthetics, and literary criticism, as well as problems of social and cultural theory, history and politics.
