Module SOC3119 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SOC3119: Introduction to Critical Theory
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
Critical analyses and reflections on the relationship between social structure and organisation and the individual in Modernity, with an examination of proponents of critical theory such as:
- Herbert Marcuse,
- Th. W. Adorno and
- Max Horkheimer
- Hannah Arendt
- Erich Fromm.
You will also be introduced to recent works in Critical Theory on alienation and freedom, the role of religion in the 21st Century and the formation of the self and social political agency, looking at works by Jürgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Axel Honneth, Nancy Fraser and Christian Fuchs.
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 22 | 11 lecture/seminars (Ca. 1 h lecture and 1 h discussion of set readings) |
| Guided Independent Study | 40 | Reading and Research |
| Guided Independent Study | 36 | Preparation and Writing of 3 Reading Summaries |
| Guided Independent Study | 52 | Preparation and Writing of Essay |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Other Learning Resources
- Film ‘Hannah Arendt’ (2012) by Margarete von Trotta (organised viewing for the course by Dr Hauskeller)
- BBC4 The Frankfurt School (14 Jan 2010), by Melvyn Bragg and guests
- BBC Mini-Series: The Century of the Self 2002, parts 1-4
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
- Stephen Eric Bronner, ‘Critical Theory, A Very Short Introduction’ (2011), Oxford University Press
- Martin Jay, ‘The Dialectical Imagination, A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-50’, (1973/1996), University of California Press
- Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer: ‘The Dialectic of Enlightenment’ (1944/2002) Stanford University Press
- Theodor W. Adorno: ‘Minima Moralia’ (2005), Verso
- Judith Butler: ‘Giving an Account of Oneself’ (2005), Fordham University Press
- Erich Fromm: ‘Escape from Freedom’ (2011), Ishi Press
- Herbert Marcuse on Ecology: The Journal of Socialist Ecology, pp. 29-49; @ https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/posthumous/79MarcuseEcologyCritiqueModernSociety1992CapNatSoc.pdf
- Jürgen Habermas: ‘The Discourse of Modernity’, (1990), MIT Press
- Axel Honneth, ‘Disrespect. The Normative Foundations of Critical Theory’ (2007), Polity Press
- Nancy Fraser 2014, Taling About Needs, Ethics Vol 99(2), pp. 291-313.
- Christian Fuchs 2017, Anxiety and Politics in the New Age of Authoritarian Capitalism, Triple C, pp. 637-650.
