The short spring of German theory (II) : we have always been postcritical

  • In the retrospect of almost a decade, the year 2015 seems to offer at least two openings which can help us better understand and localize the "end of theory" narratives that began to take hold sometime around the end of the millennium. Rita Felski's much-discussed and much-maligned 2015 book, "The Limits of Critique", construed the long history of "critique" as largely continuous with the more recent (postwar) idea of "theory," which allowed her to question the presupposed progressivity and utility of the dominant critical-theoretical discourses of late 20th-century North American academia. In the same year, Philipp Felsch's "Der lange Sommer der Theorie" (which was recently published in English as "The Summer of Theory") went so far as to assign specific dates, 1960–1990, and tended to define theory not as a purely academic product, but as a much wider cultural movement. Between the two books, questions of the difference between theory and critique, their specific institutional locus within and beyond academia, became objects of acute concern.

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Metadaten
Author:Kirk WettersGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-723191
URL:https://www.zflprojekte.de/zfl-blog/2023/03/07/kirk-wetters-the-short-spring-of-german-theory-ii-we-have-always-been-postcritical/
DOI:https://doi.org/10.13151/zfl-blog/202300307-01
ISSN:2748-5072
Parent Title (German):ZfL Blog : Blog des Leibniz-Zentrums für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
Series (Serial Number):ZfL Blog : Blog des Leibniz-Zentrums für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin (07.03.2023)
Publisher:Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
Place of publication:Berlin
Document Type:Part of Periodical
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2023/03/07
Date of first Publication:2023/03/07
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2023/03/08
Tag:Felsch, Philipp; Postkritik
GND Keyword:Theorie; Geschichte; Kritik; Koselleck, Reinhart; Felski, Rita
Volume:2023
Issue:07.03.2023
Page Number:5
First Page:1
Last Page:5
Dewey Decimal Classification:8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik
Sammlungen:CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte:ZfL Blog : Blog des Leibniz-Zentrums für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung 3.0