Search results for ""author mark g. e. kelly""

This is a book about what we consider normal. It details how the very concept of normality emerged in the modern era, and how it has changed over the centuries. By the mid-twentieth century, the expansion of norms across various areas of human endeavour generated a governing normative order in Western societies. Normality was defined as conformity with a narrow model of conventional human behaviour. However, this model has since been displaced by an anti-conformism, in which normality is defined as absolute self-fulfilment, defying older restrictions on our behaviour. Paradoxically, narcissistic individualism and rebellion against conformity have become compulsory. Normal Now explores in detail how this new normative order plays out today in the arenas of politics, health, and sex and sexuality. In all these areas, the uncompromising perfectionism of our norms of self-expression leads to increasingly deep-seated and ubiquitous anger, anxiety and dissatisfaction.

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This is a book about what we consider normal. It details how the very concept of normality emerged in the modern era, and how it has changed over the centuries. By the mid-twentieth century, the expansion of norms across various areas of human endeavour generated a governing normative order in Western societies. Normality was defined as conformity with a narrow model of conventional human behaviour. However, this model has since been displaced by an anti-conformism, in which normality is defined as absolute self-fulfilment, defying older restrictions on our behaviour. Paradoxically, narcissistic individualism and rebellion against conformity have become compulsory. Normal Now explores in detail how this new normative order plays out today in the arenas of politics, health, and sex and sexuality. In all these areas, the uncompromising perfectionism of our norms of self-expression leads to increasingly deep-seated and ubiquitous anger, anxiety and dissatisfaction.

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This is a step-by-step guide to Foucault's "History of Sexuality Volume I, The Will to Knowledge". In the first volume of his "History of Sexuality, The Will to Knowledge", Foucault weaves together the most influential theoretical account of sexuality since Freud. Mark Kelly systematically unpacks the intricacies of Foucault's dense and sometimes confusing exposition in a straightforward way, putting it in its historical and theoretical context. This is both a guide for the reader new to the text and one that offers new insights to those already familiar with Foucault's work.

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This is a step-by-step guide to Foucault's "History of Sexuality Volume I, The Will to Knowledge". In the first volume of his "History of Sexuality, The Will to Knowledge", Foucault weaves together the most influential theoretical account of sexuality since Freud. Mark Kelly systematically unpacks the intricacies of Foucault's dense and sometimes confusing exposition in a straightforward way, putting it in its historical and theoretical context. This is both a guide for the reader new to the text and one that offers new insights to those already familiar with Foucault's work.

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This is a clear and critical account of Foucault's political thought: what he said, how it's been used and its influence today. Michel Foucault (1926-1984), French philosopher, social theorist, historian of ideas and literary critic, is primarily known as a radical thinker who disturbs our understanding of society, yet little attention has been paid to his politics. Now, Mark Kelly details and criticises all of Foucault's major political ideas: the historical relativity of knowledge; exclusion and abnormality; his radical reconception of power; his historical analysis of biopolitics in terms of discipline and biopower; his concept of governmentality; and his late work around ethics and subjectivity. Kelly shows how Foucault's positions changed over time, how his thought has been used in the political sphere and examines the importance of his work for politics today. It engages with Foucault's entire corpus, from his first works right up to his posthumously published College de France lectures and the unabridged version of the History of Madness. It looks at the theoretical reception of Foucault's thought and how it has been applied to real-world problems. Student-friendly text boxes highlight and explain key ideas.

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