This text collects together Ben Agger's essays on the origins, significance and applications of critical theory - a perspective associated with the Frankfurt School. The essays address a variety of topics including the viability of Marxist theory and new social movements.
Introduction: Critical Theory Goes Public; Part 1 The Literary Production of Discipline; Chapter 1 Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism; Chapter 2 Marxism, Feminism, Deconstruction: Writing the Social; Chapter 3 Reading/Writing Otherwise: Radical Hermeneutics as Critical Theory; Chapter 4 Aporias of Academic Production; Part 2 Critical Theory and The Social Problems of Modernity; Chapter 6 The Dialectic of Deindustrialization; Chapter 7 The Dialectic of Desire; Chapter 8 The Dialectic of Dialogue; Chapter 9 Theorizing the Decline of Discourse or the Decline of Theoretical Discourse?; Chapter 10 Postmodernity as a Social Problem;