Contemporary Cultural Theory, Third Edition
Allen and Unwin, Sydney, viii + 280 pp, 2002
US edition: Routledge, New York.
UK edition: Routledge, London.
Indian edition: Rawat
Publications, Jaipur & New Delhi, 2003
eBook edition: http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=287195
This lucid and concise overview brings a much-needed sense of historical and theoretical scale to the growth of cultural studies. The authors identify six major paradigms in cultural theory: utilitarianism; culturalism and cultural materialism; critical theory and the sociology of culture; structuralist and post-structuralist semiology; difference theory; and postmodernism. They outline the social and discursive contexts within which each of these has developed, and provide the essential grounding to understand current debates in the field.
This third edition of Contemporary Cultural Theory has been extensively revised to include new material on the new historicism, queer theory, black and Latino cultural studies, cultural policy and posthumanism, and on the work of thinkers such as Zizek, Bourdieu, Deleuze and Guattari.
A rigorous and accessible guide to the often tricky manoeuvres of literary, social and cultural theorists in recent years, Contemporary Cultural Theory is an invaluable resource for all students of the many disciplines now informed by cultural theory.
'an accurate, intelligent, and often elegant guide to theory ... combines essential information with a stimulating and important critique ... Highly recommended' - Choice
'a careful and usable guide ... clear and well-documented' - Times Literary Supplement
'clear and generously objective' - Australian Book Review