Subjectivity

by Hall; Donald E.

• ISBN13: 9780415287623
• ISBN10: 0415287626
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-03-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Subjectivityexplores 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. It examines all the major methodologies and theoretical emphases of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including psychoanalytic analysis, materialist theories, feminist analysis and queer theory. Each chapter includes applications of the theories discussed, with detailed readings of a wide variety of literary and cultural texts, including novels, poetry, drama, film, the visual arts and autobiography. Donald E Hall examines our current obsession with perfecting our selves and looks to the future of selfhood given new technologies and identity possibilities.

Author Biography

Donald E. Hall is Chair of the Department of English at California State University, Northridge.

Table of Contents

SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE	vii
Introduction	1	(15)
What is Subjectivity?	1	(5)
Classical and Pre-modern Identities	6	(10)
1 The Early Modern Era and Enlightenment	16	(16)
Descartes and the "I"	16	(7)
Locke, Kant, and the "We"	23	(9)
2 The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries	32	(46)
Slavery and Subjectivities	32	(7)
Wollstonecraft and Early Feminist Subjectivity	39	(10)
Marx, Hegel, and Class Subjectivity	49	(8)
Freud and the Rise of the Social Sciences	57	(10)
Nietzsche and the Existentialists	67	(11)
3 The Politics of Identity	78	(40)
Lacan	78	(6)
Althusser	84	(6)
Foucault and Discourse Theory	90	(7)
The Politics of Gender and Sexuality	97	(13)
Race and Postcoloniality	110	(8)
4 Postmodernism and the Question of Agency	118	(13)
Haraway and Cyborg Subjectivity	118	(6)
Subjectivities	124	(7)
GLOSSARY	131	(4)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	135	(7)
INDEX	142