In The Symbol Theory, Norbert Elias draws together three central themes. At the first level the book is concerned with symbols in relation to language, knowing and thinking. Secondly, Elias stresses that symbols are also tangible sound-patterns of human communication, made possible by the evolutionary biological precondition of human vocal apparatus. At a third level, the book ...(展开全部)

Georg Lukacs wrote The Theory of the Novel in 1914-1915, a period that also saw the conception of Rosa Luxemburg's Spartacus Letters, Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Spengler's Decline of the West, and Ernst Bloch's Spirit of Utopia. Like many of Lukacs's early essays, it is a radical critique of bourgeois culture and stems from a specific Central European...(展开全部)

This field-defining collection consolidates and builds momentum in the burgeoning area of affect studies. Major thinkers theorize affect: visceral forces beneath, alongside, or generally other than conscious knowing that can serve to drive us toward movement, thought and ever-changing forms of relation. As Lauren Berlant explores "cruel optimism," Brian Massumi theorizes the af...(展开全部)

We live in an age of the mobile image. The world today is absolutely saturated with analog and digital images of all kinds circulating around the world at an incredible rate. The movement of the image has never been more extraordinary than it is today. This recent kinetic revolution of the image has hitherto unconsidered consequences not only for the way we think about contempo...(展开全部)

New York Times Bestselling Author. Millions of books sold worldwide! A Life-Changing Tool Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words? If you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn't you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words—Let T...(展开全部)

Has "theory" neglected literature? Often literary and cultural theory, which goes by the nickname "Theory," has seemed to be the theory of everything except literature: theory of language, of sexuality, of history, of the body, of the psyche, of meaning (or meaninglessness), of politics, but not theory of literature. In this timely and wide-ranging book, Jonathan Culler, whose ...(展开全部)

Introducing this collection of essays, Francoise Lionnet and Shu-mei Shih argue that looking backoinvestigating the historical, intellectual, and political entanglements of contemporary academic disciplinesosuggests a way for scholars in the humanities to move critical debates forward. They describe how disciplines or methodologies that seem separate today emerged from overlapp...(展开全部)

Badiou is widely considered to be France's most important and exciting contemporary thinker. Much of Badiou's earlier work (including "Being and Event") can only be fully understood with a clear grasp of "Theory of the Subject", one of his most important works."Theory of the Subject", first published in France in 1982, is without doubt one of Alain Badiou's most important works...(展开全部)

Throughout the history of science and technology, objects have been understood in many ways but rarely have they been understood to play an active role in the production of knowledge. This has led to largely anthropocentric theories and histories of science, which treat nature as passive objects viewed by independent observers. Thomas Nail approaches the theory of objects histo...(展开全部)