Synopses & Reviews
The book argues that Cultural Theory is best seen, at least in its "modern" form, as an ethical discipline. As such, it should be seen as a form of inquiry governed by the guiding idea of the cultivation of critical autonomy and, as such, is designed as much to change what we are in our relations to ourselves as to describe the world as it is in particular "positive" ways. The content of the book develops this argument through critical readings of three canonical writers, namely Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Bourdieu. A final chapter contrasts the ethical idea of modern Cultural Theory developed here with its postmodern derivations, which, it is argued, have taken both a more positivist and even more moralistic form.
Synopsis
What is the point of cultural theory? Do we even know what it is? This book is at once an introduction to, and, broadly, a defence of modern cultural theory understood as a particular constellation of inquiry, one that may be all the more important in our postmodern times the more seemingly irrelevant it is to current fashions.
Focusing on the work of Theodor Adorno, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault the book argues that in spite of their differences these authors shared particularly 'modern' understandings of culture, creativity and human agency; understandings centred on the ideas of critical autonomy and creativity of thought. Even though all three were committed to scholarly empirical research, for them the function of cultural theory was not just to describe the world positivistically 'as it is' (or was) but to cultivate the conditions for ethical autonomy in their readerships by opening up ways for thinking differently and exposing the fetishisms and blockages that hinder that task.
This book is intended to be both accessible for students and challenging for specialists, making a plea for a renewal of the modern in postmodern times
Synopsis
This book is about the claims of Cultural Theory as a particular kind of intellectual ethos or discipline. The book argues that Cultural Theory is best seen, at least in its 'modern' form, as an ethical discipline. As such, it should be seen as a form of inquiry governed by the guiding idea of the cultivation of critical autonomy and, as such, is designed as much to change what we are in our relations to ourselves as to describe the world as it is in particular 'positive' ways. The content of the book develops this argument through critical readings of three canonical writers, namely Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. A final chapter contrasts the ethical idea of modern Cultural Theory developed here with its postmodern derivations, which, it is argued, have taken both a more positivist and even more moralistic form.
Synopsis
An interesting companion for students of cultural theory, concentrating on the four most influential thinkers - Adorno, Bourdieu, Foucault and Jameson
About the Author
Thomas Osborne is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol.
Table of Contents
Preface and acknowledgements * Introduction * Culture - an antinomical view * Adorno as educator * Foucault and the ethics of subjectivity * Bourdieu, ethics and reflexivity * A note on post-modern cultural theory * Conclusion