This essay looks at the relationship between political movements in the streets and critical theory in the academy. It asks whether today the lack of innovation in critical theory we see in some disciplines occasions, if not reflects, the muting of political dissent outside of the university. Contemporary critical theory now seems split into two separate fields, “criticism” and “theory,” revealing a configuration quite unlike what we saw in the earlier Frankfurt School, where these two terms were merged in the name of “critical theory,” which was practiced with attention to social crisis. We’re up to the neck in crises now. How will critical theory respond?

中文翻译：

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危机时期的批判理论

本文着眼于街头政治运动与学院批判理论之间的关系。它询问今天我们在某些学科场合看到的批判理论缺乏创新是否反映了大学之外政治异议的沉默。当代批判理论现在似乎被分为两个独立的领域，“批判”和“理论”，揭示了一种与我们在早期法兰克福学派中看到的完全不同的配置，其中这两个术语以“批判理论”的名义合并，这是实践中关注社会危机。我们现在处于危机之中。批判理论将如何回应？