Issue editors: Monika Lubińska, Anna Kałuża

Critical theory is traditionally and narrowly associated with the Frankfurt School – above all – with Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. But if we talk about a broad approach, we need to invoke psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, feminist thought, critical studies of globalization, Marxism, and political aesthetics. Kritische Theorie influenced all the primary research schools of the 20th and 21st centuries. However, the distinction between traditional (positivist) theory and critical theory, introduced in the 1930s by Horkheimer, seems to be little effective today. The variety of approaches within critical thinking encompassing the writings of such thinkers as, e.g., G. W. Hegel, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michael Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas, requires rethinking aimed at overcoming the deadlock of criticality dominated by the ideological and the abstract.

Of course, we do not want to say that critical thinking has become compromised. However, the support that philosophical theories received from literary, sociological, and historical sciences no longer enlivens this thinking to the extent that it was inventive. In the 20th-century tradition, criticism was perceived mainly as "the process of revealing the truth, which enabled emancipation" (Andrzej Kapusta); but this meaning was no longer relevant by the 1990s. Discussion over these revaluations proceeded in many ways: Hal Foster, for example, saw in the post-critical turn a threat to engaged citizenship in the light of conservative twists, neo-materialist, and feminist scholars emphasized the ideological dimensions of criticism and the need to develop attitudes more oriented towards action and change. This discussion is still valid: the categories of criticality and critical thinking, highly appreciated in previous years, are insufficient in the face of today's crises, the prospects for humanistic research, and even more so, emancipation strategies. Therefore, we would like to reflect on the value of criticality in a broad sense, considering the historical background, links with current socio-political problems, and utopian-constructivist forecasts for the future.

We propose a reflection on the current conditions and possibilities of criticism (also of literary /artistic criticism), the consequences of a deadlock in critical thinking replaced by affirmative or negotiating attitudes. We want to ask if the "ruthless critique of all that exists" (Karl Marx) can still form the basis of producing knowledge about society, emotions, and culture. Or perhaps alternatives are being created for the critical theories of society, literature, culture, and knowledge in the form of other conceptualizations of our life forms. Finally – whether outside of critical reflection on the structures of power, state, capitalism, etc. – one can see suggestions for changing the status quo. Above all, whether the contemporary paradigm of criticality allows for rethinking ways to implement utopian projects.

The deadline for the submission of proposals with abstracts is 10.12.2021.
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