critical theory
Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide
What might a ‘theory of everything’ look like? Is science an ideology? Who were Adorno, Horkheimer or the Frankfurt School?
The decades since the 1960s have seen an explosion in the production of critical theories. Deconstructionists, poststructuralists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vie for our attention.
Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon’s incisive graphic guide provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing ideas and provides an essential historical context, situating these theories within a tradition of critical analysis...
Foucault: A Graphic Guide
The work of Michel Foucault – philosopher, historian, political activist, gay icon – was described at his death as 'the most important event of thought in our century'.
The author of classics such as The History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish developed concepts of power, authorship, transgression and sex which have transformed how we think about the links between individuals and society. He overturned our assumptions about the experience and perception of madness, sexuality and criminality, and the often brutal social practices of confinement, confession and discipline.
Chris Horrocks and Zoran...
Marxism: A Graphic Guide
Was Marx himself a ‘Marxist’?
What is ‘dialectical materialism’ or the ‘superstructure’?
Did Lenin and Stalin betray Marx and his ideas?
Along with Freud and Darwin, Karl Marx was among the most influential thinkers of the late 19th century. Yet Marx inspired not only revolutions in people’s minds, but colossal political upheavals, radically transforming the lives of many millions of people and the geopolitical map of the entire world.
Introducing Marxism provides a fundamental account of Marx’s original philosophy, its roots in 19th-century European...
Postmodernism: A Graphic Guide
What connects Marilyn Monroe, Disney World, The Satanic Verses and cyberspace?
Answer: postmodernism.
But what exactly is postmodernism?
This graphic guide explains clearly the maddeningly enigmatic concept that has been used to define the world's cultural condition over the last three decades.
Introducing Postmodernism tracks the idea back to its roots by taking a tour of some of the most extreme and exhilarating events, people and thought of the last hundred years: in art-constructivism, conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol; in politics and history – McCarthy's...