Frankfurt School

Proper noun

the Frankfurt School

1. A school of social theory and philosophy associated in part with the Institute for Social Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Founded during the interwar period, the School consisted of dissidents who were critical of both capitalism and Soviet socialism.
   • As a post-1960's heir of the Frankfurt School's “critique of mass culture,” Mr. Enzensberger is most ruthless toward those products of what he calls the “consciousness industry” that, through the guise of satire or social criticism, co-opt rebellious impulses that might otherwise drive the masses...1989 April 30, Martha Bayles, “Taking Sitcoms Seriously”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   • I define critical theory as something broader than Critical Theory in the Frankfurt School usage but not unrelated to it.2000, Carl Howard Freedman, Critical Theory and Science Fiction, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page xvi