The Ends of Critique

Associate professor Genderstudies Kathrin Thiele and Associate professor Comparative Literature and Transcultural Aesthetics Birgit Kaiser, together with Timothy O'Leary (University of New South Wales) have recently published their new book 'The Ends of Critique'.

Across ten diverse chapters, the book re-examines the stakes of critique in the 21st-century. The role of critique needs to be adapted to our ever-changing increasingly globalized world: this volume therefore assesses critique from a plurality of academic perspectives, purposefully moving beyond the hegemonic framework of the Eurocentric Kantian tradition. Including interventions from decolonial and systemic, deconstructive and (post)human(ist) perspectives, the book promotes a shift in critique towards a situated and critical stance. In doing so this volume sets itself apart from other recent reflections on critique such as Felski's post-critique and the liberal-democratic theories of the Frankfurt School of Thought. 

Following the earlier Symptoms of the Planetary Condition (2017), this is the first full-length research publication of the interdisciplinary research network Terra Critica which was founded by Thiele and Kaiser.