From Marx to the Frankfurt School: discourse, ideology, and critical theory

This chapter focuses on social theories of Karl Marx and the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and, most notably, Habermas), particularly their take on the notion of critique, the resulting methodologies and the role of discourse and discourse study in these methodologies. It starts with Marx and his understanding of ideology as untruth, the immanent nature of his social critique, as well as his materialist methodology, including its motivating interests and epistemological commitments. The discussion shows that Marx’s critical theories of power, history, class, and emancipation as well as his methods have had a significant influence on (socio-political) discourse analysis, from those who engage in multidisciplinary social critique, to those who advocate a structuralist approach. The second part of the chapter describes how Marx’s theories were taken up by thinkers of the Frankfurt School, bringing the recognition that language and discourse played a more active and autonomous role in processes of social formation and reproduction, and as a normative ground for critique, than previously thought. This new perspective is best seen in the communicative turn in Habermas’ work, which has influenced critical discourse studies generally and the discourse-historical approach in particular.