Description
Book SynopsisThis work introduces the principal writings of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Louis Althusser by means of a detailed focus on their common interest in the forms and conditions of knowledge. It argues against the claims that these writers were unconcerned with truth, meaning and value.
Trade Review“The attention given to what I think is essential in my research-the semiotic and symbolic, rejection, negativity, practice, in particular their close connection with Husserl, Hagel, and Freud- is unique among works which have previously dealt with my books.” Julia Kristeva
“For this reader’s money. Payne’s discussion is the best non-polemical introduction to Lacan he has come across.” Jesse W. Nash, History of European Ideas
“I have never read a more lucid explanation of Derrida’s ideas.” James R. Bennett, Style
“Reading Theory is an enormously study and, given its complexity, remarkably accessible.” John Schad, Review of English Studies
Table of ContentsPreface.
Acknowledgements.
Abbreviations.
1. Barthes: From Work to Text.
2. Foucault: Nietzsche, Genealogy, History.
3. Althusser: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.
4. Foucault: The Order of Things.
5. Barthes: S/Z. .
6. Althusser: Reading Capital.
7. Signs, Images, and the Real: Barthes, Althusser, and Foucault on Photography and Painting.
8. Deleuze: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Capitalism.
Index.
