Critiquing Critique

Abstract

This paper attempts to briefly sketch the discursive development of critique in critical theories from modernity (Kant and Marx) to postmodernity (Foucault and Butler). Critique has evolved from negative criticism of the product or output of discourse to the production of or the possibility of discourse. Moreover, there has been a movement from a framework of critique to the critique of alterity (Levinas). The paper demonstrates that this Levinasian critique has shifted from the auto-critique (focus on the self) to alter-critique (focus on the other). The other not just returns the gaze of the self but also contests that gaze in the name of justice.