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Cultural Theory
An Introduction

"For those stalking culture, you'd best set out with this mapping of the terrain."
—Roger Friedland, University of California, Santa Barbara

"The second edition of Cultural Theory provides a clear, lively, and timely introduction to leading thinkers and their ideas. Its lucid writing and comprehensive scope is of great value to students and scholars seeking to understand the field of cultural theory."
—Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Swarthmore College

"Bringing alive a subject as broad as cultural sociology is difficult, but this fresh edition succeeds brilliantly. Books about theory are usually less than exciting, let alone inspiring, but this book glows and absorbs as it informs. I have depended on it for years, cannot do without it, and, given the growth of cultural theory, I cannot see how anyone else can."
—Barry Schwartz, University of Georgia

Philip Smith (Author), Alexander Riley (Author)

9781405169073, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 25 July 2008

320 pages
24.7 x 17.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.553 kg

"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)

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

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

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH]
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