Cultural Critique

ISSN: 1530-9568

Cultural Critique is a research monograph series drawing from those scholarly traditions in the social sciences and the humanities that are premised on critical, performance-based cultural studies agenda. Preference is given to experimental, risk-taking manuscripts that are at the intersection of interpretative theory, critical methodology, culture, media, history, biography, and social structure.

7 publications

Higher Ed

What are the purposes of higher education? When undergraduates 'declare their majors,' they agree to enter into a world defined by the parameters of a particular academic discourse, a discipline. But who decides those parameters? How do they come about? What are the discussions and proposed outcomes of disciplined inquiry? What should an undergraduate know to be considered educated in a discipline? How does the disciplinary knowledge base inform its pedagogy? Why are there different disciplines? When has a discipline 'run its course'? Where do new disciplines come from? Where do old ones go? How does a discipline produce its knowledge? What are the meanings and purposes of disciplinary research and teaching? What are the key questions of disciplined inquiry? What questions are taboo within a discipline? What can the disciplines learn from one another? What might they not want to learn and why? Once we begin asking these kinds of questions, positionality becomes a key issue. One reason why there aren't many books on the meaning and purpose of higher education is that once such questions are opened for discussion, one's subjectivity becomes an issue with respect to the presumed objective stances of Western higher education. Academics don't have positions because positions are 'biased,' 'subjective,' 'slanted,' and therefore somehow invalid. So the first thing to do is to provide a sense, however broad and general, of what dinds of positionalities will inform the books and chapters on the above questions. Certainly the questions themselves, and any others we might ask, are already suggesting a particular 'bent,' but as the series takes shape, the authors we engage will no doubt have positions on these questions. From the stance of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or transdisciplinary practitioners, will the chapters and books we solicit solidify disciplinary discourses, or liquefy them? Depending on who is asked, interdisciplinary inquiry is either a polite collaboration among scholars firmly situated in their own particular discourses, or it is a blurring of the restrictive parameters that define the very notion of disciplinary discourse. So will the series have a stance on the meaning and purpose of interdisciplinary inquiry and teaching? This can possibly be finessed by attracted thinkers from disciplines that are already multicisciplinary, e.g., the various knids of 'studies' programs (Women's, Islamic, American, Cultural, etc.), or the hybrid disciplines like Ethnomusicology (Musicology, Folklore, Anthropology). But by including people from these fields (areas? disciplines?) in our series, we are already taking a stand on disciplined inquiry. A question on the comprehensive exam for the Columbia University Ethnomusicology Program was to defend Ethnomusicology as a 'field' or a 'discipline.' One's answer determined one's future, at least to the extent that the gatekeepers had a say in such matters. So, in the end, what we are proposing will no doubt involve political struggles.

31 publications

Modern French Identities

ISSN: 1422-9005

This series aims to publish monographs, editions or collections of papers based on recent research into modern French literature. It welcomes contributions from academics, researchers and writers worldwide and in British and Irish universities in particular. Modern French Identities focuses on the French and Francophone writing of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, whose formal experiments and revisions of genre have combined to create an entirely new set of literary forms, from the thematic autobiographies of Michel Leiris and Bernard Noël to the magic realism of French Caribbean writers. The idea that identities are constructed rather than found, and that the self is an area to explore rather than a given pretext, runs through much of modern French literature, from Proust, Gide, Apollinaire and Césaire to Barthes, Duras, Kristeva, Glissant, Germain and Roubaud. This series explores the turmoil in ideas and values expressed in the works of theorists like Lacan, Irigaray, Foucault, Fanon, Deleuze and Bourdieu and traces the impact of current theoretical approaches – such as gender and sexuality studies, de/coloniality, intersectionality, and ecocriticism – on the literary and cultural interpretation of the self. The series publishes studies of individual authors and artists, comparative studies, and interdisciplinary projects and welcomes research on autobiography, cinema, fiction, poetry and performance art and/or the intersections between them. Editorial Board Contemporary Literature and Thought: Martin Crowley (University of Cambridge) Francophone Studies: Louise Hardwick (University of Birmingham) and Jean Khalfa (University of Cambridge) Gender and Sexuality Studies: Florian Grandena (University of Ottawa) and Cristina Johnston (University of Stirling) Language and Linguistics: Michaël Abecassis (University of Oxford) Literature and Art: Peter Collier and Jean Khalfa (University of Cambridge) Literature and Non-fiction: Muriel Pic (University of Bern) Poetry: Nina Parish (University of Stirling) and Emma Wagstaff (University of Birmingham) Zoopoetics and Ecocriticism: Anne Simon (CNRS/Ecole normale supérieure, Paris)

158 publications

Studies in French Theatre

2 publications

French Studies of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

This series publishes the latest research by teachers and researchers working in all the disciplines which constitute French and Francophone studies in this period, in the form of monographs, revised dissertations, collected papers and conference proceedings. Adhering to the highest academic standards, it provides a vehicle for established scholars with specialised research projects but also encourages younger academics who may be publishing for the first time. The editors take a broad view of French studies and intend to examine literary and cultural phenomena of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, excluding the Romantic movement, against their historical, political and social background in all the French-speaking countries. The editors also welcome work in comparative studies, and on adaptations, across languages or media.

39 publications

Eighteenth-Century French Intellectual History

7 publications

Medieval and Early Modern French Studies

ISSN: 1661-8653

Striking and stimulating contributions continue to be made to French studies and cultural studies of the medieval and early modern periods. This series aims to publish work of the highest quality in these areas. The series will include monographs and collaborative or collected works from both established and younger scholars, and will encompass a wide range of disciplines and theoretical approaches. Contributions will be welcomed in French or English.

24 publications