Literature, Culture, and Society

by Andrew Milner

Overview

Amidst continuing debates about the literary canon, Literature, Culture and Society poses a revealing question—if academics find it valuable and stimulating to discuss texts ranging from Genesis to Bladerunner in their leisure time, why do they act as if this is sacrosanct in their formal work? In this well- argued and refreshing discussion of the history and importance of literary criticism, Milner embraces a reality that many in the academy still fear, that cultural studies is alive, and it's here to stay. Andrew Milner begins with an introduction to the field of cultural studies and its parent disciplines of English literature and sociology. He reviews the defining terms and the theoretical traditions in a manner that is sophisticated but accessible. He discusses just how and why cultural studies evolved, and what it has to offer our appraisal of all texts, be they old or new, print or film. Milner eschews both cultural populism and literary elitism in favor of a criticism that is more concerned with value than with exclusion. The author concludes this significant and insightful book with a demonstration of his theories, tying together a group of narratives ranging from Paradise Lost to the latest Frankenstein films. Literature, Culture and Society cogently examines the question of scholarship and forcefully demonstrates that rigorous academic inquiry need not be reserved for dust-covered texts alone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814755648
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	07/01/1996
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew Milner is Associate Professor and Course Director of the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. He is the author of Contemporary Cultural Theory and Cultural Materialism.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Literature, Culture and the Canon (14,727 words)

1. Literary Studies: Classics, Comparative Literature, English Literature
2. Literature as Value: The Canon, Criticism, Minority Culture
3. From Literary to Cultural Studies: The Sociological Turn
4. Elitism, Populism and Immodest Cultural Studies
5. The Intelligentsia as a Social Class

Chapter Two: Analytical Strategies (15,859 words)
1. Hermeneutics
2. Cultural Materialism and New Historicism
3. The Sociology of Culture
4. Theories of Ideology
5. Semiology and Semiotics
6. Psychoanalysis and Post-Structuralism
7. The Cultural Politics of Difference
8. Postmodernism

Chapter Three: Mechanical Reproduction - The Forces of Production (17,518 words)
1. The Literary Mode of Production
2. Mechanical Reproduction
3. The Print Media
4. The Audio-Visual Media
5. Cultural Form
6. The Sociology of the Novel
7. The Moretti Thesis: Core, Periphery and Literary Form

Chapter Four: Commodity Culture - The Relations of Production (16,277 words)
1. Print-Capitalism
2. Writers and Writing
3. Readers and Reading
4. The State, Ideology and the Market

Chapter Five: Texts and Contexts - From Genesis to Frankenstein (15,756 words)
1. Genesis
2. Paradise Lost
3. Frankenstein
4. Frankenstein in the Cinema

Chapter Six: Texts and Contexts - From Rossum's Universal Robots to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (19,702 words)
1. Rossum's Universal Robots
2. Metropolis
3. Blade Runner
4. The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. The Postmodern Prometheus and the Biomechanical Demonoid
6. Postmodern Gothic
7. Conclusion:Loose Canons and Fallen Angels