Outline of critical theory


The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to critical theory:
Critical theory has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in social science and the other in literary criticism. The term "Critical Theory" was first coined by Max Horkheimer in his 1937 essay "Traditional and Critical Theory". While academic traditions differ, critical theorists have contended with the impossibility of objective knowledge and the social and historical conditions of the subject. Karl Marx's Critique of Political Economy is considered, with the Communist Manifesto, to be the bread and butter of the form because each were written within and against an existing theory or set of theories; the former, on the work of Adam Smith and the latter on the catechism. The word "critical" in this context comes from the Greek root of "crisis". Critical theory can thus be understood as the throwing into crisis established patterns of thinking with reference to philosophy, politics and anthropology.

Essence of critical theory

Commonly used terms

Commonly used terms

Postcolonialism

Commonly used terms

Commonly used terms

Schizoanalytic theory