Subjectivity

This explores the history of theories of selfhood, from the Classical Era to the present, and demonstrates how those theories can be applied in literary and cultural criticism.

Explores the history of theories of selfhood, from the Classical era to the present, and demonstrates how those theories can be applied in literary and cultural criticism. Donald E. Hall:
* examines all of the major methodologies and theoretical emphases of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including psychoanalytic criticism, materialism, feminism and queer theory
* applies the theories discussed in detailed readings of literary and cultural texts, from novels and poetry to film and the visual arts
* offers a unique perspective on our current obsession with perfecting our selves
* looks to the future of selfhood given the new identity possibilities arising out of developing technologies.
Examining some of the most exciting issues confronting cultural critics and readers today, Subjectivity is the essential introduction to a fraught but crucial critical term and a challenge to the way we define our selves.

Series Editor's Preface  Introduction  What is Subjectivity?   Classical and Pre-Modern Identities  1. Descartes and the "I" Locke, Kant and the "We"  2. The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries   Slavery and Subjectives  Wollstonecraft and Early Modren Feminist Subjectivity  Marx and Class Subjectivity  Freud and the Rise of the Social Sciences  Nietzsche and the Existentialists  3. The Politics of Identity    Lacan, Althusser, Foucault and Discourse Theory  The Politics of Gender and Sexuality, Race and Postcoloniality   4. Postmodernism and the Question of Agency   Haraway and Cyborg Subjectivity   Subjectives  Glossary  Bibliography  Index