The collections in this series will draw together essential secondary writings on the work of a range of inspirational thinkers who have contributed to the development of what we now understand as cultural theory. The work of these key figures draws on a variety of disciplines - most especially those of literary studies, philosophy, sociology, history, linguistics, anthropology and psychoanalysis. Edited with new introductions by leading scholars in the field, the sets in this series will demonstrate how these diverse themes relate to contemporary social thought.
Edited
By Neil Badmington
February 01, 2010
Thirty years ago the English-speaking world was discovering the work of some of the key poststructuralist theorists for the first time: Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology had just appeared in translation, as had Roland Barthes’ S/Z, Jacques Lacan’s Écrits, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s ...
Edited
By Jennifer Hansen, Ann Cahill
December 13, 2007
Although at times criticized for its philosophical density, French cultural theory remains a flourishing, if highly contested, area of academic study. Four feminist thinkers in this tradition continue to be especially prominent: Simone de Beauvoir, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, and Luce Irigaray. ...
Edited
By Simon Jarvis
December 19, 2006
Theodor Adorno was a German philosopher, sociologist and musicologist and was a leading member and eventually director of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. Adorno studied an extraordinary range of subjects during his lifetime – from dialectical logic and the syntax of poetry to ...
Edited
By Gregg Lambert, Victor E. Taylor
January 31, 2006
Jean-François Lyotard's importance to modern philosophy cannot be overstated. Often associated with the concept of postmodernism, Lyotard was a central figure in the 'theory debates' during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. His writings across the disciplines strongly influenced the current shape of ...
Edited
By Gary Genosko
July 12, 2005
This collection contains key critical essays and assessments of the writings of Canadian communications thinker Marshall McLuhan selected from the voluminous output of the past forty years. McLuhan's famous aphorisms and uncanny ability to sense megatrends are once again in circulation across and ...
Edited
By Peter Osborne
December 23, 2004
No other single author has so commanding a critical presence across so many disciplines within the arts and humanities, in so many national contexts, as Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). The belated reception of his work as a literary critic (dating from the late 1950s) has been followed by a rapid ...
Edited
By Slavoj Zizek
December 23, 2002
Jacques Lacan (1901-1980) is undoubtedly the central figure of psychoanalysis in the second half of the 20th century. He not only revolutionized the psychoanalytic practice, but in his 'return to Freud', he also deployed a global reinterpretation of the entire structural linguistics and ...