Module Information

The module supplements current Departmental provision on theoretical approaches to International Politics by offering a focused and holistic examination of critical theories and their internal lines of debate. It especially complements existing provision in the areas of political theory, poststructuralism, International Relations theory, Critical Security Studies and Postcolonial Studies. It seeks to examine the aims and nature of critical theorizing, the uses of critical theories in today's political contexts, and the theoretical and political lines of contention between critical theory perspectives.

This module investigates the diverse set of perspectives associated with the term 'critical theory' in social and political science, from classical critical theory such as Marxism and the Frankfurt School to approaches such as Gramscianism, feminism, poststructuralism, post-Marxism and postcolonialism, which have developed the critical theory tradition's engagement with issues of oppression and emancipation in distinct directions. The central aim of the module is to ask 'what is "critical" about critical theory?' and to investigate what critical theories can contribute to our understandings of the contemporary political context - national and global. The module examines the ways in which critical theories analyze the nature of oppression, emancipation and resistance. Besides pointing to the commonalities between the diverse critical theory perspectives, the module also seeks to investigate the lines of contention between them, notably over what constitutes 'emancipation'. Students are encouraged to reflect on the political consequences of the disagreements among critical theorists in reference to concrete political contexts and to evaluate how far critical theorists make up a coherent 'tradition' of thought.