Module PHL3078 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
PHL3078: Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School and Communicative Capitalism
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The aims of this module are:
• to introduce you to 20th century Critical Theory and its Freudo-Marxist concepts
• to practise critical methods and critical reflection
• to learn about philosophical examination of modern-day social changes and problems
• to introduce you to 20th century philosophers who have been greatly influential on current philosophical and political thought.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
---|---|
Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the theories and texts (readings) for the course 2. Demonstrate deep understanding of the methodological and conceptual problems of critiquing modernity |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Demonstrate critical understanding of the interrelation between epistemology, values, and material social conditions 4. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of a specific current type of philosophical social and political analysis |
Personal and Key Skills | 5. Demonstrate the ability to critically analyse texts with guidance, and thoroughly discuss complex problems 6. Demonstrate the ability to write short, explanatory summaries of complex academic texts 7. Demonstrate the ability to research independently and write a critical philosophical essay on a module theme |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
This module studies concepts developed by the philosophers in the Freudo-Marxist Frankfurt School in the 20th century and the relevance or uptake of these concepts in contemporary critiques of society and capitalism.
The module aims to introduce you to critical analyses and reflections on the relationship between social structure and organisation and the individual in Modernity. This will be achieved through lectures on works by some predecessor theories, and some main proponents of critical theory, such as Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, and Erich Fromm.
Three lecture sessions will introduce you 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 and political agency, looking at works by philosphers such as Jodi Dean, Jürgen Habermas, 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 (approx. 1 hr lecture and 1 hr discussion of set readings) |
Guided Independent Study | 48 | Reading and research |
Guided Independent Study | 20 | Preparation and writing of 2 reading summaries |
Guided Independent Study | 38 | 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.
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Discussion in lectures/seminars | Prepare answers to questions on the set readings for the discussion | 1-5 | Oral |
Individual discussion of essay outlines | Essay outline | 1-7 | Oral |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Essay | 70 | 2,500 words | 1-7 | Written |
2 x Reading Summaries | 30 | 2 x 500 words | 1-7 | Oral and written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Essay | Essay (2,500 words) | 1-7 | August/September reassessment period |
2 x Reading Summaries | Reading Summaries (2 x 500 words) | 1-7 | August/September reassessment period |
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.
- Beverly Best, Werner Bonefeld and Chris O’Kane, The SAGE HANDBOOK of Critical Theory, 2018.
- Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer: ‘The Dialectic of Enlightenment’ (1944/2002) Stanford University Press.
- Theodor W. Adorno: ‘Minima Moralia’ (2005), Verso.
- Jodi Dean, J. (2005). ‘Communicative Capitalism: Circulation and the Foreclosure of Politics’, Cultural Politics, 1(1), pp. 51-74.
- Erich Fromm: ‘Escape from Freedom’ (2011), Ishi Press.
- Nancy Fraser Redistribution and Recognition (2013).
- Christian Fuchs, Anxiety and Politics in the New Age of Authoritarian Capitalism, Triple C (2017).
- Axel Honneth, ‘Disrespect. The Normative Foundations of Critical Theory’ (2007), Polity Press.
- Threbor Scholz, Digital Labor, Tayor and Francis, 2013.
- Ritu Vij, The global subject of precarity (2019).