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S. D. V. Stephens

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Critical Theory

wk 1 Introduction
1. 1 Introduction
2. 2 Marxism in Transition
wk 2 The Origins of Hegelian Marxism
1. 3 Marxism and Dialectics
2. 4 Consciousness and Reification
wk 3 Foundations of the Institute for Social Research
1. 5 Horkheimer and the Re-Founding of the Institute
2. 6 The Early Definition of Critical Theory
wk 4 Delineations of Critical Theory
1. 7 The Introduction of Psychoanalysis
2. 8 The Social Psychology of Family and State
wk 5 The Politics of Mass Culture
1. 9 Beyond Bourgeois Aesthetics
2. 10 Mass Culture and the Commodity Form
wk 6 History and Reason
1. 11 Benjamin’s Angel
2. 12 Dialectic of Enlightenment
wk 7 Fascism and Authoritarianism
1. 13 The Authoritarian Personality
2. 14 Psychoanalysis and Mass Society
wk 8 The Problem of the Culture Industry
1. 15 A Wholly Commodified World?
2. 16 Culture and Its Dialectic
wk 9 The Student Movement
1. 17 Marcuse in the 1960s
2. 18 Resistance and Resignation
wk 10 Critique and Communication
1. 19 Habermas’s Critique of the First Generation
2. 20 The Presuppositions of Communicative Reason
wk 11 Contestations in Critical Theory I
1. 21 Gender in Critical Theory
2. 22 Decolonizing Critical Theory
wk 12 Contestations in Critical Theory II
1. 23 The Recognition Debate
2. 24 Redistribution or Recognition
wk 13 Perennial Questions
1. 25 What Can Critique Still Mean?

notes / Critical Theory / week 9: The Student Movement

18 Resistance and Resignation

2 April 2026

Readings locked PDFs need the readings password

Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, an exchange of letters (1969), on the student movement and the occupation of the Institute
Theodor W. Adorno, “Resignation” (1969), also in Critical Models (borrow from the Internet Archive)
Theodor W. Adorno, “Finale”, the last section of Minima Moralia (1951)

I have no handout or notes from this lecture; the readings are above.

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