A Companion to Critical and Cultural Theory [Hardcover]

This Companion addresses the contemporary transformation of critical and cultural theory, with special emphasis on the way debates in the field have changed in recent decades.

• Features original essays from an international team of cultural theorists which offer fresh and compelling perspectives and sketch out exciting new areas of theoretical inquiry Thoughtfully organized into two sections – lineages and problematics – that facilitate its use both by students new to the field and
  advanced scholars and researchers
• Explains key schools and movements clearly and succinctly, situating them in relation to broader developments in culture, society, and politics
• Tackles issues that have shaped and energized the field since the Second World War, with discussion of familiar and under-theorized topics related to living and laboring, being and knowing, and agency and belonging

Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii
Imre Szeman, Sarah Blacker, and Justin Sully

Part I Lineages 1

1 Frankfurt – New York – San Diego 1924–1968; or, Critical Theory 3
Andrew Pendakis

2 Vienna 1899 – Paris 1981; or, Psychoanalysis 25
James Penney

3 Paris 1955–1968; or, Structuralism 41
Sean Homer

4 Birmingham – Urbana‐Champaign 1964–1990; or, Cultural Studies 59
Paul Smith

5 Baltimore – New Haven 1966–1983; or, Deconstruction 73
Michael O’Driscoll

6 Paris &als¢