A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader

2nd Edition
0335213553 · 9780335213559
Praise for the first edition“The selection is judicious and valuably supplemented by thorough commentaries that contextualise and clarify the debates and issues and the importance of each excerpt. Though today there may be many readers in and aroun… Read More
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Section 1: Semiology

Introduction
1.1 Ferdinand de Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics
1.2 Roland Barthes, from Mythologies
1.3 Pierre Macherey, from A Theory of Literary Production
1.4 Umberto Eco, from The Narrative Structure in Fleming
1.5 Colin MacCabe, from Realism and the Cinema

Section 2: Ideology

Introduction
2.1 Karl Marx, from Preface to the Cinema
2.2 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, from The German Ideology
2.3 Louis Althusser, from Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus
2.4 Simone de Beauvoir, from The Second Sex
2.5 Edward Said, from Orientalism
2.6 Homi K. Bhabha, from The Other Question
2.7 Slavoj Zizek, from The Sublime Object of Ideology

Section 3: Subjectivity

Introduction
3.1 Sigmund Freud, from Beyond the Pleasure Principle
3.2 Jacques Lacan, the Mirror Stage from Ecrits
3.3 Franz Fanon, from Black Skins, White Masks
3.4 Julia Kristevea, from The System and the Speaking Subject
3.5 Michel Foucault, from Discipline and Punish
3.6 Michel Foucault, from The History of Sexuality
3.7 Roland Barthes, from The Pleasure of the Text

Section 4: Difference

Introduction
4.1 Jacques Derrida Differance

Section 5: Gender

Introduction
5.1 Sigmund Freud, On the Universal Tendency...
5.2 Helene Cixous, from Sorties
5.3 Laura Mulvey, from Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
5.4 Manthia Diawara, from Black Spectatorship
5.5 Kobena Mercer, from Reading Racial Fetishism
5.6 Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, from Real and Imagined Women
5.7 Judith Butler, from Gender Trouble
5.8 Homi K. Bhabha, from "Race", Time and the Revision of Modernity

Section 6: Postmodernism

Introduction
6.1 Jean-Francois Lyotard, from The Postmodern Condition
6.2 Jean Baudrillard, from Simulations
6.3 Jean-Francois Lyotard, from The Inhuman
6.4 Jacques Derrida, from The Gift of Death
6.5 Jean Baudrillard, from The Spirit of Terrorism
6.6 Slavoj Zizek, from Welcome to the Desert of the Real

Summaries

Biographies

References and Index

Praise for the first edition
“The selection is judicious and valuably supplemented by thorough commentaries that contextualise and clarify the debates and issues and the importance of each excerpt. Though today there may be many readers in and around cultural and media studies, Easthope and McGowan’s remains vital…”
Times Higher Educational Supplement

This Reader introduces the key readings in critical and cultural theory. It guides students through the tradition of thought, from Saussure’s early writings on language to contemporary commentary on world events by theorists such as Baudrillard and Žižek. The readings are grouped according to six thematic sections: Semiology; Ideology; Subjectivity; Difference; Gender and Race; and Postmodernism.

The second and expanded edition of this highly successful Reader reflects the growing diversity of the field.

  • Featuring thirteen new essays, including essays by Homi Bhabha, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon and Judith Butler
  • With a general introduction as well as useful introductions to each of the thematic sections
  • Including summaries of each of the extracts – invaluable for students and lecturers.
Key reading for areas of study including cultural studies, critical theory, literature, linguistics, English, media studies, communication studies, cultural history, sociology, gender studies, visual arts, film and architecture.

Essays by: Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Homi K. Bhabha, Judith Butler, Hélène Cixous, Simone de Beauvoir, Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Frederick Engels, Franz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Jean-François Lyotard, Colin MacCabe, Pierre Macherey, Karl Marx, Kobena Mercer, Laura Mulvey, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Edward Said, Slavoj Žižek.