Best Invitations to Critical Theory Laurent Shervington is a lecturer and tutor in film studies at Notre Dame University and The University of Western Australia. His work has appeared in The Philosophical Salon, Liminal Journal and the upcoming issue of Antipodes. He tweets @jazzhorse_
The thought of sitting down and reading a work of critical theory is one that many – in a lot of cases rightfully so – shy away from as too taxing or time-consuming. However, once one has a foot in the door, the potential for grappling with genuinely thoughtprovoking ideas can lead to seeing the world in a totally different way. The following are a list of invitations or introductions to the realm of critical theory. They are picked on the basis of their ability to introduce their reader to novel ways of seeing and move from easiest to most difficult. Andrea Long Chu – Females – 2019 By far the most recent selection on this list, Andrea Long Chu’s highly polemical and energetic second wave trans studies work
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is as unrelenting in its force as it is with its sardonic humour. Chu’s inquiry is focalised mainly through a play by Valerie Solanas – the woman who penned the SCUM Manifesto and shot Andy Warhol – and follows through with the dual axioms of 1) everyone is female and 2) everyone hates it. Acerbic and important, Chu’s work will either re-invigorate your passion for critical theory or introduce you to its wide potentiality. Étienne Balibar – The Philosophy of Marx – 1994 Short and succinct, Balibar’s 100-or-so-page text on Marx balances brevity with detail in the best possible way. Rather than try to summarise or reduce his work biographically, this text shows the various antinomies and discontinuities of the influential thinker, placing future Marxist theorists such as
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