(Un)Doing Critical Theory in Pretoria, 1981–1987

Abstract

Critical Theory came to occupy pride of place in the curriculum of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria between 1981 and 1987, at the height of political repression by the apartheid state. This article seeks to unravel this apparently paradoxical phenomenon, examining the assimilations of Critical Theory to other contextually specific discursive formations, including Cold War ideology, neo-Calvinist salvation history, Christian nationalism, occidentalist ideas of “Europe,” and cultural pessimism in the late apartheid era.