A Comparative Study Of Lefebvre’s And Heller’s Critical Theories Of Daily Life

In the 1940s,Lefebvre first put forward the critical theory of everyday life,it makes up for the lack of micro cultural psychoanalysis of individual’s ordinary life,which is difficult to be satisfied by macro philosophy concerned about class oppression and committed to human’s essential liberation and political liberation.And in the 1970,Heller published "everyday life",took over the baton of everyday life research from Lefebvre,and poured her humanization thoughts into it.Both of them analyzed the dilemma and alienation in everyday life,and put forward the way to liberate it.But compared with Lefebvre,Heller’s critical theory of everyday life has the characteristics of paying more attention to individual subject.By analyzing their critical theory of daily life,this paper tries to show their different emphases and the whole picture of everyday lifeIn Lefebvre’s and Heller’s eyes,everyday life seems monotonous and mediocre.This paper first introduces their different definitions of everyday life under different emphasis on the external environment or individual subject,and expounds that everyday life is deeply monotonous and mediocre according to its inherent attributes and some changes Secondly,this paper combs the core alienation theory in their daily life criticism,analyzes the starting point of labor dissimilation,the root is economic alienation,and explains the expression of capitalism’s overall dissimilation.At the same time,it also highlights Heller’s attention to the dissimilation of human and interpersonal relationship.Thirdly,this paper expounds the ways that they think can liberate daily life.Although both of them think that it is necessary to improve both the external and the people themselves,compared with Lefebvre,Heller still focuses on the individual subject to think about problems,and improving the external is also to make people better development.At last,this paper puts forward some limitations and conjectures of the two theories.And it also analyzes the value of critical theory of everyday life in terms of promoting the integration of Marxism and contemporary Chinese social development,arousing social reflection on commodity consumption symbolization and everyday life artistry,and providing a more meaningful life for individuals.