– Critical theory – Application of knowledge from the social sciences & humanities to critique society/culture. neo-Marxist Frankfurt school – using theories of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, etc. Sociology & literary criticism. Liberate human beings from the circumstances (ideologies) that enslave them. A gadfly of other systems!
– Literary theory – the nature of literature & the methods of analyzing it. Influenced by intellectual history, moral philosophy, social prophecy, etc.
Literary criticism – interpreting & evaluating works of literature.
– Theoretical thought ~ speculative reason. Theoria, as opposed to praxis/techne
– Deconstruction – Jacques Derrida’s Grammatology (1967). Theoretical enterprise in philosophy, literature, etc. Metaphysics of presence, pure presence, essential/intrinsic meaning, absolute truth, unmediated access to reality, conceptual hierarchy, logocentrism rejected! Language as a system of signs deriving meaning only from contrast-effects with other words. ‘Differánce’.
Each concept is constituted by the reciprocal determination of its opposite. To deconstruct the way these oppositions work to produce meaning & value – neologisms/undecidables – to mark the intervals of this eternal interplay!
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Immanuel Joseph's Blog 