In these far-reaching essays, Stanley Aronvitz examines some of the crucial cultural shifts associated with the crisis of modernity and argues that art is a kind of social knowledge.
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: THE DEATH OF “ART”; Part 1 I AGAINST MODERNIST CULTURAL THEORY; Chapter 2 SO WHAT'S NEW? THE POSTMODERN PARADOX; Chapter 3 CRITIC AS STAR; Chapter 4 OPPOSITES DETRACT: SONTAG VERSUS BARTHES FOR BARTHES'S SAKE; Chapter 5 THE TENSIONS OF CRITICAL THEORY: IS NEGATIVE DIALECTICS ALL THERE IS?; Part 2 II LITERATURE AS SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE; Chapter 6 LITERATURE AS SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE: MIKHAIL BAKHTIN AND THE REEMERGENCE OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES; Chapter 7 BETWEEN CRITICISM AND ETHNOGRAPHY: RAYMOND WILLIAMS AND THE INTERVENTION OF CULTURAL STUDIES; Part 3 III CULTURAL POLITICS; Chapter 8 REFLECTIONS ON IDENTITY; Chapter 9 BIRTHRIGHTS; Chapter 10 PAULO FREIRE's RADICAL DEMOCRATIC HUMANISM; Chapter 11 THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING: JüRGEN HABERMAS IN AMERICA; Part 4 IV POLITICAL CULTURE; Chapter 12 THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN LIBERALISM; Chapter 13 PAST PERFECT; Chapter 14 SEEING GREEN; Chapter 15 IS DEMOCRACY POSSIBLE? THE DECLINE OF THE PUBLIC IN THE AMERICAN DEBATE Index;
