Overview

This second edition of Cultural Theory provides a concise introduction to cultural theory, placing major figures, traditional concepts, and contemporary themes within a sharp conceptual framework. Provides a student-friendly introduction to what can often be a complex field of study Updates the first edition in response to reader feedback and to the changing nature of the field Includes additional coverage of theorists from the classical period to include Nietzsche and DuBois Introduces entirely new chapters on race and gender theory, and the body Considers themes that have become more important in theoretical activity in recent years such as computers and virtual reality, cosmopolitanism, and performance theory Draws on theories and theorists from continental Europe as well as the English-speaking world

Full Product Details

Author:   Philip Smith (Yale University) ,  Alexander Riley (Bucknell University)
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   Wiley-Blackwell
Edition:   2nd edition
Dimensions:   Width: 17.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 24.70cm
Weight:   0.553kg
ISBN:  

9781405169073

ISBN 10:   1405169079
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   25 July 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition: About this Book vi Preface to the Second Edition ix Acknowledgments x Introduction: What is Culture? What is Cultural Theory? 1 1 Culture in Classical Social Theory 6 2 Culture and Social Integration in the Work of Talcott Parsons 26 3 Culture as Ideology in Western Marxism 34 4 Culture as Action in Symbolic Interactionism, Phenomenology, and Ethnomethodology 54 5 The Durkheimians: Ritual, Classification, and the Sacred 69 6 Structuralism and the Semiotic Analysis of Culture 92 7 The Poststructural Turn 111 8 Culture, Structure, and Agency: Three Attempts at Synthesis 128 9 British Cultural Studies 144 10 The Production and Reception of Culture 158 11 Culture as Text: Narrative and Hermeneutics 176 12 Psychoanalytic Approaches to Culture and the Self 195 13 The Cultural Analysis of Postmodernism and Postmodernity 207 14 Postmodern and Poststructural Critical Theory 228 15 Cultural Theories of Race and Gender 241 16 The Body in Cultural Theory 262 References 280 Index 296

Reviews

"""Highly recommended to anyone interested in acquiring a theoretical basis on which to systematize their knowledge of cultural theory. Indeed, the authors manage to make the complex simple enough to understand without oversimplifying."" (Discourse Studies, 2010) ""Presenting such a wide-ranging and multifarious set of ideas in a coherent manner constitutes a very considerable achievement. The book offers anyone interested in cultural theory a broad conspectus—provided of course it is read as a whole."" (Metapsychology Online Reviews, February 2009)"

Highly recommended to anyone interested in acquiring a theoretical basis on which to systematize their knowledge of cultural theory. Indeed, the authors manage to make the complex simple enough to understand without oversimplifying. (Discourse Studies, 2010) “Presenting such a wide-ranging and multifarious set of ideas in a coherent manner constitutes a very considerable achievement. The book offers anyone interested in cultural theory a broad conspectus--provided of course it is read as a whole. (Metapsychology Online Reviews, February 2009)

Author Information

Philip Smith is Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University and Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology. His books include Cultural Theory: An Introduction (Blackwell, 2001), Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War and Suez (2005), The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim (with Jeffrey C. Alexander) (2005), and Punishment and Culture (2008). Alexander Riley is Associate Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University. He is the author of Godless Intellectuals?: How Durkheimian Sociology and Poststructuralism Reinvented the Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred (2008).

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