Does critical theory – from the Frankfurt School to “French Theory” – have a concept of politics? Or does it tend to retreat from political analysis and political action, into aestheticism or theoreticism? This course will provide an intensive study of twentieth-century critical theory, in pursuit of its distinctive theory of politics. We will focus, in particular, on how critical theorists have treated the family and its powers. We will consider key concepts in critical theory – concepts like authority, violence, ideology, government, and even emancipation – for what they tell us about politics, the family, and the intimate relationship between them. And we will draw from and develop feminist methods, reading critical theory against the androcentrism that has also defined this (and nearly every other) intellectual tradition. Readings will include works by Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, Frantz Fanon, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Rancière.