Talk:Cultural critic

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To say "Walter Benjamin on the left" is an extremely huge oversimplification. The Frankfurt School had as much influence from the left as it did from the right. Considering them "lefty" sounds inaccurate to me. --Clementduval 05:47, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

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The definition is a truism, don't you think? "A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture." DoctorElmo 18:29, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Probably more relevant is not that this is a truism, but rather that it really addresses only one of the two major types of cultural critic (at least as I have come to understand them). This definition implies that the word "culture" here follows its more modern and anthropological meaning, the behaviors and traits of a certain people at a certain time in a certain locale, or the meaning that attaches to culture in "critical theory," at least this is what I take is meant by "given." But it ignores the older meaning in which culture refers to literary and artistic achievement (something that today we are inclined to call "high culture," although I think this may have created some odd misunderstandings and the tendency to think that such a culture criticism must inevitably exclude popular or mass culture). Quite obviously these two definitions of culture will produce culture critics who are quite different (even the word "critic" is not quite the same for these two definitions, is it?).

Arnold was, no doubt, chief among the promoters of "high culture" criticism. Harold Bloom is in the tradition of Arnold (although he would dislike the comparison very much). Any number of modern anthropologists could stand in for the anthropological cultural critic, Levi-Strauss comes to mind first. Habermass and the critical theorists are, I suppose, more in the tradition of Levi-Strauss, but banging at the door of the Arnoldians.

Within the literature on Arnold a number of works concern themselves with defining cultural criticism in the Arnoldian sense. That literature may be a good starting place for someone wanting to fix this article. For the anthropological view, I'm not sure where to go, but for critical theory, well Habermass, Horkheimer, Adorno... And should this article address the dreaded culture wars of the 90s? They were obviously born out of the tension between these two views. Mddietz (talk) 23:03, 18 June 2009 (UTC) Having looked at the culture wars article here on wikipedia, which is about as one dimensional as this article, perhaps it might be better that this article avoid that topic. Mddietz (talk) 14:21, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

cultural critics v. prophets?

A cultural critic therefore stands, in relation to intellectual or artistic life, or certain social arrangements or educational practices, roughly where a prophet would in respect of religious life. What on Earth does this mean? The bold text immediately following it suggests that it was thrown in carelessly. – Scartol · Talk 00:11, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

"Notable Cultural Critics"

Why is there no mention in this list of C.G. Jung or Raoul Vaniegem, when Sigmund Freud and Guy Debord have their respects paid? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.71.245.81 (talk) 00:33, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Who says these are cultural critics or notable as such. References??

Notable cultural critics (according to random internet users)

• Influenced by Marx
  • Antonio Gramsci
  • Georg Lukács
  • The Frankfurt School
    • Walter Benjamin
    • Theodore Adorno
    • Max Horkheimer
    • Leo Lowenthal
  • Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Louis Althusser
  • Raymond Williams
  • E.P. Thompson
  • Guy Debord
  • Jürgen Habermas
  • Angela Davis
  • Stuart Hall
  • Terry Eagleton
  • Frederic Jameson
• Postmodernist
  • Jacques Derrida
  • Michel Foucault
  • Jean Lyotard
  • Jean Baudrillard
• Feminist
  • Simone de Beauvoir
  • Judith Butler
  • Luce Irigaray
  • Donna Haraway
  • Camille Paglia

• Neil Postman
• Pierre Bourdieu
• Sigmund Freud
• Cornel West
• Christopher Lasch
• Harold Bloom
• Richard Hoggart

Radical basis?

From the lead: "A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis."

What does this mean? Is it referring to political radicalism, and if so what is the source? --George100 (talk) 07:16, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

problem with the title itself ? spelling error ?

this page, linked directly to the German page "Kulturkritik", meaning "cultural critique" (with "-que" at the end) or "cultural criticism" hence seems rather weird : isn't there a very basic spelling confusion in the title, when creating this page, between "critique" (judgment) and "critic" (person) (no confusion at all possible in German, "Kritk" and "Kritiker", correpond both to "critique" and "critic" respectivelly -unhappily not such distinction in French !-) ? there shouldn't be any ambiguity in English, either American or British or else : as mentioned in Wikipedia at the page ["critic"], it says rightly in the first place "Not to be confused with Critique."