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This book brilliantly elucidates Barthes' application of these ideas to literature, popular culture, clothes and fashion, and explains why his thinking in this area made him a key figure in the structuralist movement of the 1960's.
Introducing Barthes brilliantly explains Barthes' application of these ideas to literature and popular culture, and shows why he was a key figure in the structuralist movement.
Now updated with coverage of globalization, youth subcultures, body modification, new media, virtual cultures and more, 'Introducing Cultural Studies' gives a systematic overview of the concepts, theories, debates and latest research in the field.
Philip Thody and Ann Course elucidate Barthes' application of these ideas to literature, popular culture, clothes and fashion. They further clarify why his thinking in this area made him a key figure in the structuralist movement of the 1960s.
INTRODUCING guide to the cult author, semiologist and analyzer of advertising, Roland Barthes. Roland Barthes is best known as a semiologist, a student of the science of signs. This sees human beings primarily as communicating animals, and looks at the way they use language, clothes, gestures, hair styles, visual images, shapes and colour to convey to one another their tastes, their emotions, their ideal self-image and the values of their society. Introducing Barthes brilliantly elucidates Barthes' application of these ideas to literature, popular culture, clothes and fashion, and explains why his thinking in this area made him a key figure in the structuralist movement of the 1960s. It goes on to describe how his later insistence on pleasure, the delights of sexual non-conformity, and the freedom of the reader to interpret literary texts in the light of ideologies such as existentialism, Marxism and Freudianism, as well as structuralism itself, continues to make him one of the most dynamic and challenging of modern writers. This is the perfect companion volume to Introducing Semiotics.
A rapidly changing world - in part driven by huge transformations in technology and mobility - means we all encounter shifting cultures, and new cultural and social interactions daily. Powerful forces such as consumption and globalization exert an enormous influence on all walks and levels of life across both space and time. Cultural Studies remains at the vanguard of consideration of these issues. This completely revised second edition of Introducing Cultural Studies gives a systematic overview of the concepts, theories, debates and latest research in the field. Reinforcing the interdisciplinary nature of Cultural Studies, it first considers cultural theory before branching out to examine different dimensions of culture in detail. Key features:Collaboratively authored by an interdisciplinary team, Closely cross-referenced between chapters and sections to ensure an integrated presentation of ideas. Figures, diagrams, cartoons and photographs help convey ideas and stimulate, Key Influence, Defining Concepts, and Extract boxes focus in on major thinkers, ideas and works, Examines culture along the dividing lines of class, race and gender, Weblinks and Further Reading sections encourage and support further investigation, Changes for this edition: Brand new chapter addresses how culture is researched and knowledge in cultural studies is produced. Brand new chapter on the Postmodernisation of Everyday Life. Includes hot topics such as globalization, youth subcultures, 'virtual' cultures, body modification, new media, technologically-assisted social networking and many more. This text will be core reading for undergraduates and postgraduates in a variety of disciplines - including Cultural Studies, Communication and Media Studies, English, Geography, Sociology, and Social Studies - looking for a clear and comprehensible introduction to the field.
This book provides a lively introduction to the work of Roland Barthes, one of the twentieth century's most important literary and cultural theorists. The book covers all aspects of Barthes's writings including his work on literary theory, mass communications, the theatre and politics. Moriarty argues that Barthes's writing must not be seen as an unchanging body of thought, and that we should study his ideas in the contexts within which they were formulated, debated and developed.
This core textbook offers a concise, direct and easy-to-use introduction to how semiotics can be employed to understand culture. It adopts a practical and versatile approach to cultural analysis, beginning not with an abstract body of theory but with a number of examples of social sign use which are examined critically using basic semiotic terms and concepts to build up the reader's analytic vocabulary in a practical way. This book is designed to be read in several ways. First of all, it offers a structured approach to its subject with successive chapters reconsidering and building upon issues raised in earlier chapters. The layout of the text supports alternative pathways through the material, however. Written principally with the undergraduate student reader in mind, this is the essential research tool for students and lecturers. It is the ideal international starting-point for a very wide range of courses both in cultural and media studies and related subjects such as film studies, literature and sociology.
'An excellent book' - Ted Honderich, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London (UCL) Introducing Consciousness provides a comprehensive guide to the current state of consciousness studies. It starts with the history of the philosophical relation between mind and matter, and proceeds to scientific attempts to explain consciousness in terms of neural mechanisms, cerebral computation and quantum mechanics. Along the way, readers will be introduced to zombies and Chinese Rooms, ghosts in machines and Erwin Schrodinger's cat.
