About the Book

This authoritative guide introduces the key figures in contemporary critical theory for the beginning student. The critical theory covered in the volume includes: Semiotics and discourse analysis • Structuralism and post-structuralism • Ideology critique • Deconstruction • Feminism • Queer theory • Psychoanalysis • Postcolonialism • Postmodernism • Second generation Frankfurt School critical theory • Marxism and post-Marxism. Each chapter provides biographical information and details about the thinker’s intellectual context, an explanation of key concepts, an outline of the major angles of the theorist’s work, an indication of ways in which their theory has been applied and suggestions for further reading. There are individual chapters on: Lacan, Levinas, Althusser, Barthes, Derrida, Irigaray, Cixous, Kristeva, Lyotard, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Habermas, Jameson and Said.

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Contents

• Introduction

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About the Author / Editor

Jon Simons is Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Foucault and the Political (Routledge, 1995).

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