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Alexander Neupert-Doppler & Charles Reitz

In: The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory

Chapter 43: Critical Theory and Utopian Thought

Edited by: Beverley Best, Werner Bonefeld & Chris O’Kane

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526436122.n43

Subject: German Social Theory, Critical Theory

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Neupert-Doppler, A. & Reitz, C. (2018). Critical theory and utopian thought. In B. BestW. Bonefeld & C. O’Kane The sage handbook of frankfurt school critical theory (Vol. 3, pp. 714-733). 55 City Road, London: SAGE Publications Ltd doi: 10.4135/9781526436122.n43

Neupert-Doppler, Alexander and Charles Reitz. "Critical Theory and Utopian Thought." In The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory, 714-733. 55 City Road, London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018. doi: 10.4135/9781526436122.n43.

Neupert-Doppler, A & Reitz, C 2018, 'Critical theory and utopian thought', in The sage handbook of frankfurt school critical theory, SAGE Publications Ltd, 55 City Road, London, pp. 714-733, viewed 5 April 2020, doi: 10.4135/9781526436122.n43.

Neupert-Doppler, Alexander and Charles Reitz. "Critical Theory and Utopian Thought." The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Beverley BestWerner Bonefeld and Chris O’Kane. Vol. 3. 55 City Road: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018. 714-733. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 5 Apr. 2020, doi: 10.4135/9781526436122.n43.

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Critical Theory and Utopian Thought
Critical Theory and Utopian Thought
Alexander Neupert-Doppler Charles Reitz

The relationship between critical theory and Utopian thought is often misunderstood. The influential theorists of the Frankfurt School, particularly Adorno and Horkheimer, but also Benjamin and Marcuse, were critical of the Utopian novels like Thomas More’s Utopia [1516] because of the latent authoritarianism in the detailed social designs in this tradition. Yet a Utopian element can still be found in their visions of social liberation. Ruth Levitas notes that Western Marxism in the twentieth century ‘has undergone a partial re-ordering of economism and is more sympathetic to the importance of ideas (and thus Utopia) in the process of social change’ (Levitas, 1990: 157). In this ...

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