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Giles, Goat-Boy is a black comedy to bite everyone. Embodied in a postmodern fabulation, Barth’s sense of humor allows him to create a political allegory on any structure of power that claims to save humanity. GILES, a hybrid of a machine and a goat, is tasked with the mission to lead the so-called academic society through instrumental intellect. But he can only go so far as not to create a conflict of interest between the ruling powers. The pattern used in creating Giles is an imitation of the classic patterns in creation and journey of a hero, except that Giles is destined to appear as a scapegoat against the positivist Sphinx of Time. Such an approach begs the main question of the research: How ideological systems sacrifice their heroes to secure their interests? This hypothesis is also in line with Frankfurt School’s critical theory, which considers the capitalist system to be a violation of freedom and social values. The intellectuals such as Horkheimer and Adorno consider man to be a victim of objectification and alienation arising from social and political conflicts. They also believe that hegemonic systems have humiliated man with false pleasures. Just as Giles fails to reform the most powerful ruling system, WESCAC, so Barth symbolically paints a bleak picture of human destiny in modern society today. The purpose of the research is to raise human awareness about the harsh laws that are the ominous products of instrumental intellect, as one of the defining elements of capitalist system.
 

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 “Crisis of comparative literature” has not desisted after six decades: David Damrosch substitutes world literature for comparative literature, Tötösy de Zepetnek proposes the idea of a “new comparative literature,” Djelal Kadir promotes “a negotiated comparative literature,” Susan Bassnett is skeptical about the essence of comparative literature, and Gayatri Spivak has already declared the discipline’s death. Comparative literature has long allied its fate with that of critical theory. Today, subaltern, postcolonial and gender studies are among the advocated approaches in comparative literature. However, they all originate in critical theory. Besides, the two tracks of comparative literature-inter-literary and inter-disciplinary-are also similar to critical theory. In fact, comparative literature and literary theory and criticism are so intertwined that some scholars go as far as identifying them with each other. However, some comparatists are skeptical about theory. Legitimate doubts are expressed about the application of foreign theories to native cultural products. Yet, certain texts from certain cultures and literatures smoothly allow a rich application of one or more of foreign approaches or their modified and localized versions. Reading a certain cultural product within a foreign theoretical framework-as far as it is feasible-can offer rich and exciting possibilities in the study of world literature. This is actually a way to understand a literature or culture through the eyes of others.  The fate of comparative literature, thus, is bound with that of critical theory. Developments in critical theory, especially recent ones, offer suggestions for new perspectives in comparative literature. Surely, the intelligent employment of theoretical prospects can prove to open new vistas in comparative literature.  

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In this article, the author is trying to problematize the concept of critique in Critical Theory by arguing that we need to go beyond the traditional parameters of the Critical Theory Canon as defined by Euro-Atlantic historiographers and critical social theorists. But in order to achieve this goal the author has attempted to demonstrate alternative approaches in conceptualizing complexities of social reality by employing the concept of Istehmar as defined by Ali Shariati. What does Istehmar mean? How does Shariati articulate this concept in sociological fashion? How is this concept different than classical concepts such as anomie, alienation and disenchantment?