New Cultural Studies

Adventures in Theory

Edited by Gary Hall and Clare Birchall

Title Details

Pages: 336

Trim size: 9.200in x 6.140in

Formats

Paperback

Pub Date: 03/01/2007

ISBN: 9-780-8203-2960-4

List Price: $34.95

New Cultural Studies

Adventures in Theory

Edited by Gary Hall and Clare Birchall

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  • Description
  • Reviews
  • Contributors

New Cultural Studies is both an introductory reference work and an original study which explores new directions and territories for cultural studies. A new generation has begun to emerge from the shadow of the Birmingham School. It is a generation whose whole education has been shaped by theory, and who frequently turn to it as a means to think through some of the issues and current problems in contemporary culture and cultural studies.

In a period when departments which were once hotbeds of "high theory" are returning to more sociological and social science oriented modes of research, and 9/11 and the war in Iraq especially have helped create a sense of "post-theoretical" political urgency which leaves little time for the "elitist," "Eurocentric," "textual" concerns of "Theory," theoretical approaches to the study of culture have, for many of this generation, never seemed so important or so vital.

New Cultural Studies explores theory's past, present, and most especially future role in cultural studies. It does so by providing an authoritative and accessible guide, for students and teachers alike, to:the most innovative members of this "new generation"the thinkers and theories currently influencing new work in cultural studies: Agamben, Badiou, Deleuze, Derrida, Hardt and Negri, Kittler, Laclau, Levinas, and Žižekthe new territories currently being mapped out across the intersections of cultural studies and cultural theory: anti-capitalism, ethics, the posthumanities, post-Marxism, and the transnational

This is a wonderful book about emergent possibilities within cultural studies. The contributors valuably deconstruct and rearticulate the too-often taken for granted theoretical discourses of cultural studies. Rather than a declaration of generational independence as the title might suggest, it is an important reminder of the need for cultural studies to go on theorizing, in ever-changing contexts of political demands.

—Lawrence Grossberg, author of Caught in the Crossfire

New Cultural Studies is a rousing call to reinvigorate cultural studies. Presenting and interrogating a range of new theoretical discourses, the book provides a generous and informative look at a new generation of theorists whose work is crucial to understanding the agency of politics within cultural studies. New Cultural Studies is a must read for anyone concerned not just about the future of cultural studies but also about theory’s presence in constructing such a future.

—Henry Giroux, McMaster University

Hall and Birchall, along with the writers they have included in this volume, breathe fresh intellectual life in the field of cultural studies by looking to strands in contemporary philosophy and showing how an animated conversation between cultural studies and philosophy especially in relation to world events, ethics, war, multi-culturalism, technology and the body, is long overdue. The chapters in this collection are erudite and lucid, they are also lively and engaged, and they are highly effective insofar as they bring cultural studies into a new era.

—Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths College London

Just when even the stodgiest of academics was getting used to the idea of cultural studies as a traditional academic discipline, here comes a book to shake everything up again.

Pop Matters

New Cultural Studies is an exciting call to action from writers concerned about the future of the field of cultural studies. . . . This text looks beyond the distinguished Birmingham School's theoretical work toward today's greatest minds, such as Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben and Gilles Deleuze. . . . Provides an invaluable text for anyone interested in the future of cultural studies . . . As a graduate student studying gender and cultural studies, I felt so fortunate to have read this book because it enlightened me about so many facets and theorists in the field that I had previously never come across.

Feminist Review

Neil Badmington

Caroline Bassett

Dave Boothroyd

Paul Bowman

Jeremy Gilbert

Julian Murphet

Brett Nielson

Gregory J. Seigworth

Imre Szeman

Jeremy Valentine

Geoffrey Winthrop-Young

J. Macgregor Wise

Joanna Zylinska

About the Author/Editor

Gary Hall (Editor)
GARY HALL is a senior lecturer in cultural studies at Middlesex University. Hall is the author of Culture in Bits. He is also founding coeditor of the e-journal Culture Machine and editor of the Culture Machine book series.

Clare Birchall (Editor)
CLARE BIRCHALL is a senior lecturer in sultural studies at Middlesex University. Birchall, who has published widely on cultural theory and cultural studies, is the author of Knowledge Goes Pop.