The Transatlantic Invention and Reinventions of “Critical Theory”

Abstract

Where does the phrase “critical theory” that circulates on American
campuses but has no equivalent in continental Europe come from? This article recounts the intellectual and social origins of the concept and label
coined by the German philosopher Max Horkheimer, in 1937, during the
exile of the Institut für Sozialforschung in America; and describes the
circumstances in which it was given up soon afterwards (and until 1968).
The reasons for discontinuing the use of this term can only be understood
through a transnational analysis of an international academia where
questions could arise about the conditions underlying an intermediate
and intercultural position – and about the dual outsider status of
emigrants. The switch for thirty years in Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s selfpresentation
was the subjective price to pay in order to practice a social
game that, accumulating the profits from both participation and criticism,
maintained a personal status and identity despite the loss of position
during exile and reclassification upon return. The subjective social
conditions of the “migration of concepts” and cultural globalization are
important, especially for measuring asymmetries.