In this module we will discuss texts by some key thinkers in the tradition of modern continental European political thought which has come to be called ‘critical theory’, focusing in particular on the themes of reason and power.
Topics we shall address include:reason and the rationalisation of society; the Enlightenment and its critics; ideology and social control; the nature and foundations of sovereignty; and the relation of power to knowledge and subjectivity.
We shall read selections from the work of Weber, Schmitt, Lukács, Adorno and Horkheimer, Foucault, Deleuze, Habermas, Butler, Agamben, and Žižek.
Students may want to familiarise themselves with some of the course reading. Here is a provisional list of the books and articles that we will be reading either in part or in full:
One essay of 4000 words (100% of total mark).
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