H. Marcuse: In Search of the lost subject

Abstract

The critical theory of Marcuse promotes an emancipatory social action which is not in the hands of the isolated individual, but rather of a social force commanded by a common agreement. As opposed to Horkheimer and Adorno (also members of the so called Frankfurt School), who, self-absorbed in their historical pessimism, speak to an "imaginary witness", Marcuse thinks that the critical theory would lose its legitimacy if it did not have a real interlocutor. This essay is a study of the subjects that Marcuse considers as possible promotors of a social transformation. Considering the proletariat, as already integrated to the consumption society, Marcuse proposes the student and feminist movements, the black activists of North America, and others, as possible revolutionary subjects. In the last part of the article, the authoritarian criteria manifested in Marcuse's position are discussed and it is proposed that the emancipation must be thought from the social actor.