Task of Cultural Critique

Teresa L. Ebert is a professor of cultural theory at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her works include Class in Culture and Ludic Feminism and After: Postmodernism, Desire, and Labor in Late Capitalism.

"A valuable and timely critique of the political bankruptcy and logical manipulations of many influential contemporary theories that continue to have a stranglehold on Truth in the academic and cultural marketplace."--Science and Society"A stimulating, path-breaking text that stands out as both an anti-text in the arena of cultural studies and as a classic Marxist analysis of the field of cultural critique. It will explode the field."--Peter McLaren, author of Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution"This powerful book confirms that Teresa L. Ebert is one of the most significant Marxist theorists currently writing about the humanities."--Barbara Foley, author of Spectres of 1919: Class and Nation in the Making of the New Negro

• Preface: The Critique of Interpretive Reason   ixPART 1   ANATOMY OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL CRITIQUE1. The Spectral Concrete   32. The Abstract of Transformative Critique   273. Desiring Surfaces   46PART 2   THE WORK OF CRITIQUE4. Affective Pedagogy and Feminist Critique   695. Chick Lit: "Not Your Mother's Romance Novels"   976. Red Love   1187. Globalization, the "Multitude," and Cynical Critique   1348. Reading Ideology: Marx, de Man, and Critique   169Coda: Reclaiming Totality   195Bibliography   197Index   211