Cultural criticism doesn't have a good reputation these days. At best it is considered pathetic and outdated, at worst as politically suspect. In this situation, the question of the historical conditions under which it was created and developed becomes more explosive. This study describes their emergence in the 18th and early 19th centuries. So far, cultural criticism has been interpreted mainly as a theoretical network of statements that has been outlined using a number of canonical poets and thinkers. Instead, Theo Jung sees it as a discourse. In four thematic chapters, this discourse is located in contemporary debates about economy, society, language and knowledge. Contrary to the common notion of cultural criticism as a foreign body in modernity, the author succeeds in highlighting its inherent modernity.