Search results for ""author michele barrett""

This new book draws together the work of a leading social theorist who has devoted herself to examining the intersection of cultural studies, social theory, feminism, and literary theory. Imagination in Theory contains both new and published work focusing on Barrett's long-standing interest in cultural questions, and shows how this informs her analysis of current developments in social and feminist theory. The essays challenge disciplinary boundaries, and Barrett uses her background as a specialist in literature to "translate" across the barriers between the humanities and social sciences, raising a number of important - and sometimes controversial - issues. Taking culture, theory and writing as its themes, the book explores these through work on aesthetics, cultural politics, subjectivity, developments in feminist thought, psychoanalysis, and some new ideas on cultural studies and social theory. The book ends with a strikingly original comparison of the ideas of Virginia Woolf and Michel Foucault which is used to pose questions about the differences and similarities between fiction and theory. This exciting book will be widely read by students and academics in cultural theory, social theory, feminism and literary theory.

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The concept of ideology - traditionally one of Marxism's most persuasive ideas - has recently been subjected to devastating criticism. Michele Barrett shows that Marx's own writings offer a confusing array of possible approaches to 'ideology', which the classical Marxist tradition consolidated as 'mystification that serves class interests'. Barrett locates Gramsci and Althusser as key figures in the breakdown of the classical Marxist conception - Gramsci's work presaging the separation of class, politics and ideology found in Laclau and Mouffe, and Althusser's failing to deliver an adequate approach to subjectivity. Foucault - replacing Marxism's 'economics of untruth' with his own 'politics of truth' - is examined as an exemplar of post-structuralist critiques of ideology.

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This new book draws together the work of a leading social theorist who has devoted herself to examining the intersection of cultural studies, social theory, feminism, and literary theory. Imagination in Theory contains both new and published work focusing on Barrett's long-standing interest in cultural questions, and shows how this informs her analysis of current developments in social and feminist theory. The essays challenge disciplinary boundaries, and Barrett uses her background as a specialist in literature to "translate" across the barriers between the humanities and social sciences, raising a number of important - and sometimes controversial - issues. Taking culture, theory and writing as its themes, the book explores these through work on aesthetics, cultural politics, subjectivity, developments in feminist thought, psychoanalysis, and some new ideas on cultural studies and social theory. The book ends with a strikingly original comparison of the ideas of Virginia Woolf and Michel Foucault which is used to pose questions about the differences and similarities between fiction and theory. This exciting book will be widely read by students and academics in cultural theory, social theory, feminism and literary theory.

Read more less

In a world that has been shrunk by modern communications and transport, Star Trek has maintained the values of western maritime exploration, and the discovery of "Strange New Worlds" in space. This 'Starry Sea' has become a familiar metaphor in the thirty-year history of Star Trek, providing a backdrop to the relentless questioning of human nature. The progressive politics that underpinned the original programme is still very much a part of Star Trek's overall philosophy. The earlier series of Star Trek shows a faith in science and rationalism, and in a benign, liberal leadership. This 'modern' order is now in decline, as we can see in the introduction of religion, mental illness and fragmented identities in Deep Space Nine and Voyager. This book addresses these issues in philosophical, literary, historical and cultural contexts, bringing together an unusual combination of authorial expertise. Written to appeal to those who don't know Star Trek from Star Wars, as well as those with the ferociously detailed knowledge of the true Trekker, it explains the ideas and ideals behind this significant cultural phenomenon.

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This major new book is the most up-to-date account of current feminist debates, written by some of the world's leading feminist thinkers. The 1980s saw a devastating critique of the simple unities of woman or woman's experience as a theoretical basis for feminist politics. The 1990s brought a powerful reappraisal of the universalizing tendencies in mainstream political, social and cultural theory, as feminists explored the deeper biases that go beyond 'mere sexism' to structure the very terms of theoretical debate. Destabilizing Theory pushes this debate further with major new essays by Michele Barrett and Anne Phillips, and specially commissioned papers from prominent theorists in Britain, the USA and Australia, who take up and develop the themes in a variety of contexts.

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Despite much talk of its decline, the nuclear family persists as a structure central to contemporary society, a fact to be lamented, according to the ideas of Michèle Barrett and Mary McIntosh. The Anti-social Family dissects the network of household, kinship and sexual relations that constitute the family form in advanced capitalist societies to show how they reinforce conditions of inequality. This classic work explores the personal and social needs that the family promises to meet but more often denies, and proposes moral and political practices for more egalitarian caring alternatives.

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In a world that has been shrunk by modern communications and transport, Star Trek has maintained the values of western maritime exploration, and the discovery of "Strange New Worlds" in space. This 'Starry Sea' has become a familiar metaphor in the thirty-year history of Star Trek, providing a backdrop to the relentless questioning of human nature. The progressive politics that underpinned the original programme is still very much a part of Star Trek's overall philosophy. The earlier series of Star Trek shows a faith in science and rationalism, and in a benign, liberal leadership. This 'modern' order is now in decline, as we can see in the introduction of religion, mental illness and fragmented identities in Deep Space Nine and Voyager. This book addresses these issues in philosophical, literary, historical and cultural contexts, bringing together an unusual combination of authorial expertise. Written to appeal to those who don't know Star Trek from Star Wars, as well as those with the ferociously detailed knowledge of the true Trekker, it explains the ideas and ideals behind this significant cultural phenomenon.

Read more less