Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements Critical Keywords: Abjection Aesthetics Alterity Aporia Carnival/Carnivalesque Class Culture Deconstruction Desire Difference/Différance Discourse Event Gender Hegemony Hyperreality Hypertext I/dentity Ideology Imaginary-Symbolic-Real Interpellation Intertextuality Iterability/Iteration Jouissance Khora/Chora Literature Materialism/Materiality Modernism Myth/ology Narrative/Narration Other Overdetermination Performativity Postmodernity/Postmodernism Power Queer Race Reader/Reading Sexuality/Sexual Difference Simulacrum/Simulation Subject/ivity Uncanny Unconscious Writing Afterwords: Literary and Cultural Theory: The Contested Ground of Critical Language, or Terms, Concepts, and Motifs Works Cited Index.

Promotional Information

'For the adventure of a lifetime, pick a letter - any letter. Julian Wolfreys' Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory offers the most brilliant, generously conceived, and self-effacing invitation to roar and glide in literary and cultural theory I know. It is an anti-dictionary, increasing meaning rather than containing it, thus providing us with opportunities to explore rather than reasons to stop thinking. Look up 'class,' or 'queer,' or 'gender,' or 'writing,' or any other of the 43 terms, and you find yourself opening to a whole range of possibilities, a stimulating education you can conduct yourself. I know of no finer avenue into modern thought, wonderful both for new visitors and for those who imagine they know the terrain.' - James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California

About the Author

JULIAN WOLFREYS is Professor of Victorian Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Florida.

Reviews

'For the adventure of a lifetime, pick a letter - any letter. Julian Wolfreys' Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory offers the most brilliant, generously conceived, and self-effacing invitation to roar and glide in literary and cultural theory I know. It is an anti-dictionary, increasing meaning rather than containing it, thus providing us with opportunities to explore rather than reasons to stop thinking. Look up 'class,' or 'queer,' or 'gender,' or 'writing,' or any other of the 43 terms, and you find yourself opening to a whole range of possibilities, a stimulating education you can conduct yourself. I know of no finer avenue into modern thought, wonderful both for new visitors and for those who imagine they know the terrain.' - James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California