Table Of ContentThe Spectacle of Critique
Far from being the preserve of a few elite thinkers, critique increasingly
dominates public life in modernity, leading to a cacophonyof accusation and
denunciation around all political issues. The technique of unmasking ‘power’
or ‘hegemony’ or ‘ideology’ has now been adopted across the political spec-
trum,wherecriticaldiscoursesareroutinelyusedtosuggestthatanythingand
everything is only a ‘construct’ or even a ‘conspiracy’. This book draws on
anthropologicaltheorytoprovideadifferentperspectiveonthisphenomenon;
critique appears as a liminal predicament combining imitative polemical and
schismatic urges with a haunting sense of uncertainty. It thereby addresses a
central academic concern, with a special focus on political critique in the
public sphere andwithin social media. Combining historical interrogations of
the roots of critique, aswell as examining contemporary political discourse in
relation to populism, as seen in presidential elections, historical com-
memorationsandwelfarereform,TheSpectacleofCritiqueusesanthropology
and genealogy to offer a new sociologyof critique that problematises critique
and diagnoses its crisis, cultivating acritical and imaginativewaysof thinking.
Tom Boland is Lecturer in Sociology at Waterford Institute of Technology,
Ireland. His research focuses on critique, literature and unemployment. He is
the authorof Critique as a Modern Social Phenomenon and co-authorof The
Sociology of Unemployment.
Contemporary Liminality
Series editors:
Arpad Szakolczai, University College Cork, Ireland
Series advisory board:
Agnes Horvath, University College Cork, Ireland
Bjørn Thomassen, Roskilde University, Denmark
Harald Wydra, University of Cambridge, UK
This series constitutes a forum for works that make use of concepts such as
‘imitation’, ‘trickster’ or ‘schismogenesis’, but which chiefly deploy the notion
of ‘liminality’, as the basis of a new, anthropologically-focused paradigm in
social theory. With its versatilityand range of possible uses rivalling and even
going beyond mainstream concepts such as ‘system’ ‘structure’ or ‘institu-
tion’,liminalityisincreasinglyconsideredanewmasterconcept thatpromises
to spark a renewal in social thought.
In spite of the fact that charges of Eurocentrism oreven ‘moderno-centrism’
arewidelydiscussedinsociologyandanthropology,itremainsthecasethatmost
theoretical tools in the social sciences continue to rely on taken-for-granted
approaches developed from within the modern Western intellectual tradition,
whilstconceptsdevelopedonthebasisofextensiveanthropologicalevidenceand
which challenged commonplaces of modernist thinking, have been either mar-
ginalised and ignored, or trivialised. By challenging the assumed neo-Kantian
and neo-Hegelianfoundations ofmodernsocialtheory, and by helping toshed
new light on the fundamental ideas of major figures in social theory, such as
Nietzsche, Dilthey, Weber, Elias, Voegelin, Foucault and Koselleck, whilst also
establishingconnectionsbetweentheperspectivesgainedthroughmodernsocial
and cultural anthropology and the central concerns of classical philosophical
anthropologyContemporaryLiminalityoffersanewdirectioninsocialthought.
Walling, Boundaries and Liminality
A Political Anthropology of Transformations
Agnes Horvath, Marius Bent¸a and Joan Davison
The Spectacle of Critique
From Philosophy to Cacophony
Tom Boland
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/sociology/series/ASHSER1435
The Spectacle of Critique
From Philosophy to Cacophony
Tom Boland
Firstpublished2019
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Series:Contemporaryliminality;8|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018012926|ISBN9781138564299(hbk)|
ISBN9781315122342(ebk)
Subjects:LCSH:Criticaltheory.|Criticism(Philosophy)
Classification:LCCHM480.B672018|DDC300.1--dc23
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In memory of my Grandmother, Joan Brooks (1925–2017).
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 The tragedy of critique 1
2 The sound and the fury: The insights and limits of the critique of
critique 8
3 The experience of critique: Inside permanent liminality 31
4 Critique is history?: Understanding a tradition of tradition-
breaking 52
5 Unthinking critical thinking: The reduction of philosophy to
negative logic 77
6 The cacophonyof critique: Populist radicals and hegemonic
dissent 101
7 Asocial media: An auto-ethnography of on-line critiques 123
8 Towards acritical theory 143
Bibliography 151
Index 162
Acknowledgements
Most insights in this work are drawn from a longer tradition and a broader
intellectual culture. The thesis is not ground-breaking, revolutionary or para-
digm-shifting, which at least is a change from the claims made in blurbs for
almost every work today. This is not an earth-shattering ‘critique of critique’,
still less agrand statement re-founding ‘critical theory’. Rather, itisanattempt
to approach critique, despite its claims to be iconoclastic, idiosyncratic or
inspired, as part of society, part of a complex cultural tradition – yet unfortu-
nately critique increasingly displaces all other theories, narrowing the range of
thought. Furthermore, I argue that critique is in crisis, proliferating wildly and
adopted by all political persuasions, creating animosity and stalemate in the
public sphere. Furthermore, critique creates unanticipated consequences,
scepticism, cynicism, individualism, fragmentation and the reduction of all
life to a strategic power game. Neither recommitting to critique nor
demanding free speech in the public sphere is a solution to these problems.
In a previous book, Critique as a Modern Social Phenomenon, I attempted
mainlyto‘problematise’critique.Whilethatisanalmostunavoidableexercise
for any thinker who emerges from a critical culture, and a markedly
‘debunking’discipline like sociology, the attempt to understand critique only
takesrealshapeinthecurrentvolume.The call fora further historicisation of
critique made in that book is answered here, and the concentration on the
public cacophony of critique is a distinctive focus herein.
While acknowledging others, especially the emergent scholarship on cri-
tique, this book is a fresh combination of ideas, bringing Foucault and
anthropology to bear, wherein critique emerges as apredicament as much as
an intellectual tool, provoking polemic and haunting doubt. Ultimately,
the aim is to understand critique, the way it works as a discourse, which
implies that it is necessary to understand and forgive critics. Forgive your
critics; nothing else annoys them so much! Thus, in advance I forgive mine,
and beg forgiveness from those I have criticised in passing in this book; by
slipping into critique, or into the critique of critique, is almost unavoidable.
Throughout this book I have tried to avoid controversy and polemic, the
effort is to recognise critics and criticism inunexpected places rather than to
criticise others.
Acknowledgements ix
I would like to acknowledge and thank a few of those whose ideas and
conversation have aided the composition of this book, which has been my
perennial interest; I have been discussing the ideas for over a decade and no
doubt will continue. Some of these are critics, fewof them agreewith me, but
that is to be expected in a critical culture. If there is anyone I have left out,
please forgive me. First, the series editor Arpad Szakolczai who suggested
many acritical theories and listened patiently to my emerging ideas. Second, I
would like to thank my colleagues at Waterford Institute of Technology, with
whom I have discussed ideas and issues over many years: Colette Colfer,
Philip Cremin, Dave Delaney, Niamh Maguire, John O’Brien, Jill O’Mahony
and Jennifer O’Mahony, and most especially Ray Griffin, who read some
early drafts; our collaboration emerges in this volume, and not just in the
discussion of welfare, but in the general spirit of the work. Special thanks are
due to Paul Clogher who discussed Old Testament prophecy with me at
lengthasaprecursorofcritique,andmythankstohimandWarrenGoldstein
for their permission to use elements of work published previously in Critical
Research on Religion. More widely, I have enjoyed conversations with James
Fairhead, Kieran Keohane, Carmen Kuhling, Tina Kinsella, James Cuffe,
Tristan Laing and the many scholars and students at the Economy & Society
Summer School. Similarly, my thanks to Peter Baehr, Rita Felski, Magnus
Paulsen Hansen and Richard Kilminster for sharing their ideas. The Interna-
tionalPoliticalAnthropologygrouphavelongbeenacrucialinspirationforme,
Bjorn Thomassen, Harald Wydra, and especially Agnes Horvath, who read a
draft of the chapter on anthropology. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Paddy
O’Carroll, a great teacher and thinker who has since passed on; he introduced
me to interpretative sociology and also pointed out that, whatever critics say,
people build their castles in the sky. Finally, and most of all, I must thank
Tríona Ní Shíocháin, my most generous and forgiving critic, for helping me to
understand my journey through critique and beyond.
