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Masculinities and Desire considers the question of male subjectivity in relation to Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of desire. Western tradition has thought of desire from the vantage point of masculine subjectivity; what happens when the order is reversed, and desire speaks through masculinity? Can masculinity be conceived beyond the gender binary and thus affirm its potential to transcend the patriarchal order? In answer, Masculinities and Desire calls for a radically new approach to traditional cultural criticism. Contributing a critical male perspective, the book sheds new light on the conceptual and ethical limits of established, representational (gender) criticism. Reflecting on mascul...
In an era of the radicalization of political ideologies in Europe, long-lasting societal remnants of the economic breakdown, and the neoliberalist consolidation of capitalist values, it is ethically relevant to critically reconceptualise the meaning and role of European feminisms and the challenges they have to confront today, both locally and transnationally. In the face of ubiquitous beliefs about feminism having exhausted itself, such a rethinking of the place and priorities of feminist politics within and outside academia is urgently needed. The popularization of the so-called faux-feminisms, assuming attained emancipation in the present-day neoliberal environment of advanced capitalism,...
Health Humanities in contemporary times has enabled exploration of the unexplored chartered terrains in literary paradigms. Scholars in the field of Humanities and Sciences have been engaging with the praxis of applying concepts from both disciplines revising the approach towards Health Care and Humanities. Due to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methodologies of reading literary texts, they have been reinforcing a paradigm shift from the conventional understanding of narratives in Literature and Health Care. Traditional discursive boundaries between the disciplines of Health and Humanities are collapsing due to a comprehensive and nuanced interpretation of the shared ontological foun...
This volume responds to the need to extend the theory of citizenship, in order to bridge the gap between the public and the private sphere. Through the application of intersectional methodology, the authors document how people’s most private decisions and practices are intertwined with public institutions and state policies. The stories of intimate citizenship included in this volume make the theoretical discussion more palpable. Situated perspectives, as well as application of theoretical concepts to lived experience, extend citizenship’s territory beyond the conventional public sphere and locate it at the intersection of many axes of social, political, and cultural stratification.
The book explores the role of communication technologies in American cultural practice over the last 150 years. Communication technologies are here understood to include audio and visual reproduction technologies, analogue telecommunications such as traditional telephony, radio and television broadcasts, digital telecommunications, computer-mediated communications, telegraphy, and computer networks. The study of the impact of such technologies is a way to explore the various flows and tensions of American culture. How has American society molded communication technologies? How have they, in turn, shaped American history? Are Americans still, in the words of Thoreau, "tools of their tools"? More so or less than during the philosopher's Walden days? How do America's cultural, ethical, and economic assumptions determine and limit the ways in which telecommunications function in American society? Fascinating questions abound.
Negotiating Sexual Idioms: Image, Text, Performance affords new theoretical approaches and insights into the complexity of sexual discourse pervading contemporary cultures, exploring sexuality's role in dominant conceptualisations of self and society, in patterns of political belonging and exclusion, and in societal transformations. Opening with a substantial critical introduction, this collection of twelve essays and creative pieces contributes to significant current debates regarding sexual rights and their violation, queer theory and identity politics, sexual fantasy formations and strategies of pleasure, and the celebration of sexual diversity, topics explored through a variety of discip...
This collection of articles devoted to Europe was born from the urgent need to present the specificity of European culture, both its unity and diversity, and at the same time create a stimulating dialogue about European culture and its complexities. European culture, considered as all inherited beliefs and values behind social action, has been treated in the past as a complex phenomenon of superior value, as the result of a common past among European nations, the permeation of various cultural elements between cultures, and their absorption in different contexts. In the past the process of shaping European identity was often fierce and dramatic, influenced by the events taking place within, but also outside European borders. Now, it has undergone various transformations as a result of new political, economic and cultural challenges. For this reason, the authors and editors of this volume place emphasis on diachronic perspectives: their approaches often consider local European issues against a global background.
“Covering an impressive scope of subjects in literary and cultural theory, from Freud, Heidegger and Barthes to Fish, Rorty and Bhabha, Theory That Matters offers a welcome up-to-date assessment of the state of the discipline. Such a recapitulation serves as a point of departure for the examinations of the new practices across the arts and media and of the innovative interpretative tools suggested by these practices. The contributors take their examples from an amazing variety of contexts and thus prove that the very dynamics of theory is a fascinating phenomenon. Succeeding several recent anthologies that have cast doubt on the aims of theory, the present volume launches its defence and, at the same time, demonstrates that this is not to be achieved at the expense of praxis. The book clearly shows that theory owes its currency to its multiple functions, among others, as a procedure of interpretation, a vehicle for philosophical reflection, and a formulation of an ideological stance.” – Marek Paryz, Associate Professor, Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw; Editor of the Polish Journal for American Studies
Digital Diversities is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary study of the social, social-psychological, philosophical and political ramifications of the ‘digital turn’ in human affairs. Focusing, in particular, on connections between the saturation of everyday life by digital communication technologies and 21st century global mobility, it offers fresh and original accounts of the interface between online communication practices and the negotiation of increasingly complex social experience. It provides critical studies of, among other things, the consequences of the widespread shift to remote rather than embodied relationships, the day-to-day management of intercultural encounters in unprece...
The world is becoming more transnational. This edited collection examines how the immense transnational changes in the contemporary world are being produced by and are affecting different men and masculinities. It seeks to shift debates on men, masculinities and gender relations from the strictly local and national context to much greater concern with the transnational and global. Established and rising scholars from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America explore subjects including economies and business corporations; sexualities and the sex trade; information and communication technologies and cyberspace; migration; war, the military and militarism; politics; nationalism; and symbolism and image-making.