Cultural critique (Kulturkritik) does not have the best reputation. To many, laments about the decline of civilization seem lofty and antiquated. Often, they are denounced as reactionary and politically suspect. At the same time, however, we instantly recognize it’s mode of speaking as a particular voice that is still – despite the ridicule and indignation it is subjected to – omnipresent in our daily life.
In this context, the question of the historical conditions of its emergence and development gains new relevance. Against the traditional understanding of cultural criticism as a theoretical system to be either refuted or supported, this study approaches the subject as a discourse that arose in a very specific historical constellation. Using the methods of historical semantics and on the basis of a wide range of French, German, and English sources, it analyzes its changing form and sociopolitical effects in various fields, thus giving an account of a mode of cultural reflection that is – precisely in its reaction against modernity – distinctly modern.
Reviews
- Rudolf Schlögl, Kulturkritik ist selbst der Luxus, den sie anprangert, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nr. 78, 04.04.2013, p. 30.
- Christian Wilke, Der Kulturkritiker – ein Abziehbild?, in: KULT_online 35 (2013).
- Ralf Konersmann, Begleitmusik der Zivilisationsentwicklung. Theo Jung erschließt die Tiefenzeit der Kulturkritik, in: Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie 7, Nr. 1 (2013), p. 218-219.
- Arnold Heumakers, Het is al eeuwen vijf voor twaalf, in: NRC Handelsblad, 44 Nr. 10, 11.10.2013, p. C12.
- Michel Espagne: Rezension von: Theo Jung, Zeichen des Verfalls. Semantische Studien zur Entstehung der Kulturkritik im 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert, Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2012, 480 S., in: Francia-Recensio, Nr. 3 (2013).
- Frank Lisson: Rezension von: Theo Jung, Zeichen des Verfalls, in: Geschichte für heute 7, Nr. 3 (2014), p. 108-109.
- Wyger R. E. Velema: Meer dan ‘O tempora, o mores!’, in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 128, Nr. 1 (2015), p. 155-156.
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