The last few decades have seen an explosion in the production of critical theories, with deconstructioniss, poststructuralists, postmoderniss, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vying for our attention. The world around us can look very ...
Here is the new expanded edition of the international bestseller Introducing Postmodernism. Has the 21st century resolved the question of 'postmodernism' or are we more than ever ensnared in its perplexities? Postmodernism seemed to promise an end to the grim Cold War era of nuclear confrontation and oppressive ideologies. Fukuyama's notoriously ...
Aiming to demystify the facts of Freud, this text tells the story of Freud's life and ideas from his upbringing in 19th-century Vienna, his early medical career and his encounter with cocaine to the gradual evolution of his theories of the unconscious, dreams and sexuality.
Our knowledge comes primarily from experience. But is experience really what it seems? Is it reliable? Empiricist philosophers accept a 'commonsense' view of the phenomena we observe and yet conclude that all we can ever know are 'ideas'. Physical reality may not exist at all! The experimental breakthroughs of Kepler, Galileo and Newton - a ...
Pope Pius XII condemned Existentialism for its 'terrifying nihilism'. Anguish, despair, absurdity, nothingness...these still have a power to scandalise. Do we find in them the quintessence of Existentialism? Or has Existentialism's truth been eclipsed by its popular appeal? Richard Appignanesi begins with Camus and suicide: 'Must life have a ...
Can machines really think? Is the mind just a complicated computer program? "Introducing Artificial Intelligence" focuses on the major issues behind one of the hardest scientific problems ever undertaken. Artificial Intelligence is not just a fictional concept. Half a century of research into the construction of intelligent machinery has resulted ...
The ideas of psychoanalysis have permeated Western culture. It is the dominant paradigm through which we understand our emotional lives, and Freud still finds himself an iconic figure. Yet despite the constant stream of anti-Freud literature, little is known about contemporary psychoanalysis. "Introducing Psychoanalysis" redresses the balance. It ...
Philosphy, art, literature, music and politics were tranformed in the turbulent period between the French Revolution of 1789 and the Communist Manifesto of 1848. This overview of Romanticism focuses on the leading figures in Europe and America.
Carl Gustav Jung was the most enigmatic and controversial disciple of Sigmund Freud. He introduced to psychoanalysis crucial questions about religion and the soul which Freud neglected. However, our perception of Jung today as a quasi-religious sage with a growing "New Age" following overlooks the fact that he was primarily a scientist and a ...
Hindusm is said to be the world's oldest religion. Yet the word 'Hindu' is of foreign 18th-century origin. Hindusm is defined as a polytheistic religion, but Mahatma Gandhi famously declared that one can be a Hindu without believing in any god. Hindusm appears to accommodate endless contradictions. It is a religion at least as much of myth as of ...
'Machiavellian' is a popular byword for treachery and opportunism. Machiavelli's classic book on statecraft, "The Prince", published over 400 years ago, remains controversial to this day because of its electrifying frankness as a practical guide to power. Is it a how-to manual for dictators, a cynical philosophy of 'the end justifies the means', ...
90% or more of the matter in the universe is unseen. Nobody knows what it is. The universe expands, but nobody knows how long the expansion has been going on. Will it expand forever, or collapse in a Big Crunch, perhaps a Big Bang in reverse? From Aristotle to Newton, Einstein and quantum mechanics, this book recounts the revolutions in physics ...
Freud revolutionized the way we think of ourselves. His psychoanalytic terms such as Id, Ego, libido, neurosis and Oedipus Complex have become a familiar part of our everyday vocabulary. But do we know what they really mean? This book demystifies the facts of Freud's discovery of psychoanalysis. Irreverent but never trivial, it tells the story of ...
A wonderful educational tool for those unfamiliar with Kafka, this volume includes a brief but inclusive biography as well as the plots of many of his works, all illustrated by Crumb, making this newly designed edition a must-have for admirers of both Kafka and Crumb. Young Adult.
Shakespeare's dark portrait of ambition begins when the eponymous hero, a Scottish soldier, encounters three witches, who mysteriously refer to him as the future king. As, step by step, their prophecy begins to be fulfilled, the seeds of ambition are planted not only in Macbeth but in his scheming wife, who soon is plotting the murder of Duncan, ...
Environmental issues affect the daily lives of everyone on Earth, from the air we breathe and the food we eat to the technology we use. They are quite simply central to our survival and the preservation of a world worth living in. This revised and updated edition offers a wide range of information to help us understand the subject, from the Flood ...
The latest in the breakout series "Manga Shakespeare," introducing teens to a new kind of Bard. In one of Shakespeare's funniest, most enduring stories, meddling fairies create unexpected love triangles among a group of teenagers. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Demetrius is in love with Hermia. Helena is in love with Demetrius. Add to the mix ...
In 1859, Charles Darwin shocked the world with a radical theory - evolution by natural selection. One hundred and fifty years later, his theory still challenges some of our most precious beliefs. Introducing Evolution provides a step-by-step guide to 'Darwin's dangerous idea' and takes a fresh look at the often misunderstood concepts of natural ...
This is a reissue of a key "Introducing" title. The rainbow, the moon, a spinning top, a comet, the ebb and flood of the oceans...a falling apple. There is only one universe and it fell to Isaac Newton to discover its secrets. Newton was arguably the greatest scientific genius of all time, and yet he remains a mysterious figure. Brilliantly ...
Freud is universally recognised as a pivotal figure in modern culture. Yet the man and his work continually attract scandal, outrage and scientific suspicion. Was he a psychological genius or a peddler of humbug? Despite his atheism, did he invent a new religious cult? Is he to blame for disguising the prevalence of sexual abuse? Is there an ...
This book examines a profound and mysterious puzzle: how does the biological tissue that makes up the brain give rise to the activities that our culture refers to as 'the mind'? How does the three pounds of electric sponge stowed in the top of your head allow you to experience enchantment in front of the evening landscape, and then make you ...
William Shakespeare's absolute pre-eminence in contemporary Western culture and society is simply unparalleled. His plays pack theatres and provide Hollywood blockbusters with scripts; his works are considered fundamental to the teaching of English literature. He has given us many of our words, and defined much of how we think. How did this happen ...
Did Fascism end with the Allied victory over the Axis powers in 1945, or has it been lying dormant and is now re-awakening as we move into the 21st century? "Introducing Fascism and Nazism" trace the origins of Fascism in 19th-century traditions of ultra-conservatism, the ideas of Nietzsche, Wagner and other intellectuals which helped to make ...
For Thomas Sebeok, semiotics not only addresses human verbal communication but embraces the study of all sign activity - which is indeed, Sebeok argues, the very definition of life in the universe. What does Sebeok's vision say, though, about ethics or the arts?
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