Theories of Representation and Difference - Böcker

"It is essential reading for anyone concerned with the theoretical discussion of cinema, and ideology in general." —Semiotica" . . . Heath is an antidote to the Cinema 101 worldview." —Voice Literary SupplementHeath's study of film draws on Lacanian psychoanalysis, semiotics, and Marxism, presenting film as a signifying practice and the cinema as a social institution of meanings.

Semiotics is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most fruitful and exciting fields of intellectual inquiry. Literary scholars, philosophers, social scientists, and students of linguistics and communication are all finding something of value in the various insights and approaches to knowledge that are included within the general field of semiotics. This significant new collection contains some of the most important contemporary work by modern pioneers in the field together with a few formative statements from earlier thinkers such as John Locke and Jacques Maritain. The volume covers in five parts the nature of semiotics, semiotic systems, various developing themes, traditional concerns of semiotics, and future directions.

"One of the most comprehensive and intelligent postmodern critics of art and literature, Huyssen collects here a series of his essays on pomo..." -Village Voice Literary Supplement "...his work remains alert to the problematic relationship obtaining between marxisms and poststructuralisms." -American Literary History "...challenging and astute." -World Literature Today "Huyssen's level-headed account of this controversial constellation of critical voices brings welcome clarification to today's murky haze of cultural discussion and proves definitively that commentary from the tradition of the German Left has an indispensable role to play in contemporary criticism." -The German Quarterly "...we will certainly have, after reading this book, a deeper understanding of the forces that have led up to the present and of the possibilities still open to us." -Critical Texts "...a rich, multifaceted study." -The Year's Work in English Studies Huyssen argues that postmodernism cannot be regarded as a radical break with the past, as it is deeply indebted to that other trend within the culture of modernity-the historical avant-garde.

"Brilliantly argued and lucidly written...the definitive psychoanalytic account of the repression of woman in Hollywood cinema." -Tania Modleski "...complex and challenging..." -The Women"s Review of Books "...magnificently ambitious...some of the most original and intelligent essays in film theory today." -Journal of Modern Literature "...deeply commited to the psychoanalytic approach..." -Contemporary Sociology The Desire to Desire traces the way in which female spectatorship is specified primarily by its lapses or failures, arguing that the women's film simultaneously asserts and denies female desire, attributing to the woman only an impossible gaze.

"Technologies of Gender builds a bridge between the fashionable orthodoxies of academic theory (Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, et al.) and the frequently-marginalized contributions of feminist theory...In sum, de Lauretis has written a book that should be required reading for every feminist in need of theoretical ammunition-and for every theorist in need of feminist enlightenment." -B. Ruby Rich "...sets philosophical ideas humming...she has much to say." -Cineaste "I can think of no other work that pushes the debate on the female subject forward with such passion and intellectual rigor." -SubStance This book addresses the question of gender in poststructuralist theoretical discourse, postmodern fiction, and women's cinema. It examines the construction of gender both as representation and as self-representation in relation to several kinds of texts and argues that feminism is producing a radical rewriting, as well as a rereading, of the dominant forms of Western culture.

" . . . a vitally new understanding that takes us from the terms of the representation of sexual difference to an anatomy of female subjectivity which will be widely influential." —Stephen Heath"An original work likely to have significant impact on all those with an interest in the vibrant intersection of feminism, film theory, and psychoanalysis . . . " —Naomi Schor" . . . powerfully argued study . . . impressive . . . " —Choice" . . . important because of its innovative work on Hollywood's ideologically-charged construction of subjectivity. . . . what is exciting about The Acoustic Mirror is that it inspires one to reevaluate a number of now classical theoretical texts, and to see films with an eye to how authorship is constructed and subjectivity is generated." —Literature and Psychology"As evocative as it is shrewdly systematic, the pioneering theory of female subjectivity formulated in the final three chapters will have wide impact as a major contribution to feminist theory." —SubStanceThe Acoustic Mirror attempts to do for the sound-track what feminist film theory of the past decade has done for the image-track—to locate the points at which it is productive of sexual difference. The specific focus is the female voice understood not merely as spoken dialogue, narration, and commentary, but as a fantasmatic projection, and as a metaphor for authorship.

"To read Rainer's screenplays is to rediscover, even reinvent, the films all over again, but more importantly to realize that images and mise-en-scène are as key to how Rainer's films work as is language." —The Independent"The scripts record the unique structure of [Rainer's] films, the stresses, strains, and crackling of voices layering over and into one another. Their publication is an important moment for feminist film." —Cineaste"Rainer's films are not highly accessible but are important to the critical imagination as an example of the sustained exploration of political and feminist theory." —Choice"Rainer's important work in the area of avant-garde filmmaking in the seventies and eighties is amply recorded in this book . . . " —Cantrills Filmnotes'The scripts of Rainer's five films, presented here along with essays, an interview, and bibliography, demonstrate the evolution of her political consciousness as well as her creative engagement with the contemporary film and cultural scene. These texts challenge the illusionist and ideological presumptions of mainstream culture and cinema.

"[The Woman at the Keyhole is one] of the most significant contributions to feminist film theory sin ce the 1970s." —SubStance" . . . this intelligent, eminently readable volume puts women's filmmaking on the main stage. . . . serves at once as introduction and original contribution to the debates structuring the field. Erudite but never obscure, effectively argued but not polemical, The Woman at the Keyhole should prove to be a valuable text for courses on women and cinema." —The IndependentWhen we imagine a "woman" and a "keyhole," it is usually a woman on the other side of the keyhole, as the proverbial object of the look, that comes to mind. In this work the author is not necessarily reversing the conventional image, but rather asking what happens when women are situated on both sides of the keyhole. In all of the films discussed, the threshold between subject and object, between inside and outside, between virtually all opposing pairs, is a central figure for the reinvention of cinematic narrative.

"The location of the author's investigations, the body itself rather than the sphere of subjective representations of self and of function in cultures, is wholly new. . . . I believe this work will be a landmark in future feminist thinking." —Alphonso Lingis"This is a text of rare erudition and intellectual force. It will not only introduce feminists to an enriching set of theoretical perspectives but sets a high critical standard for feminist dialogues on the status of the body." —Judith Butler Volatile Bodies demonstrates that the sexually specific body is socially constructed: biology or nature is not opposed to or in conflict with culture. Human biology is inherently social and has no pure or natural "origin" outside of culture. Being the raw material of social and cultural organization, it is "incomplete" and thus subject to the endless rewriting and social inscription that constitute all sign systems.Examining the theories of Freud, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, etc. on the subject of the body, Elizabeth Grosz concludes that the body they theorize is male. These thinkers are not providing an account of "human" corporeality but of male corporeality. Grosz then turns to corporeal experiences unique to women—menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause. Her examination of female experience lays the groundwork for developing theories of sexed corporeality rather than merely rectifying flawed models of male theorists.

". . . a valuable scholarly addition to any student of Freud or as research material in a library." —HNet, H-CAACADavis argues that the visual dimension of Freud's writing is crucial to understanding its structure and significance. He offers a new and challenging reading of Freud's case study of Serge Pankejeff, the "Wolf Man." Much of the analysis revolved around Pankejeff's childhood dream of wolves and a drawing of this dream he made for Freud.

"Allen's book will . . . provide the categories that will deepen our understanding of lesbian relationships and of lesbian fiction." —Lesbian Review of Books"Barnes scholars will . . . want to pick up Carolyn Allen's new book, for it not only offers perceptive readings of Nightwood and the "Little Girl" stories . . . , but traces the example of Barnes's exploration of lesbian power and loss in the fiction of Jeanette Winterson, Rebecca Brown, and the underrated Bertha Harris." —Review of Contemporary Fiction" . . . fascinating . . . [a] fine volume . . . " —Choice"Following Djuna is a fascinating analysis of the textual erotics and lyrical seductions of the work of Djuna Barnes and the writers she influences. This scintillating genealogy of lesbian intertextuality . . . expands the field of lesbian and feminist literary inquiry and concepts of lesbian literary production." —Judith Roof"As lesbian literary history, here is an instant classic." —Jane Marcus"This is an important and necessary book; even further, speaking as an admirer of the writers and literary works it discusses and as a personal expert on lost love, I find Following Djuna irrestible." —Karen Helfrich, Lambda Book ReportCarolyn Allen argues for the importance of women's fiction in understanding women's erotics—emotional and sexual exchanges between women.

"This book demonstrates Case's continued dominance of the field of lesbian performance studies. . . . Case's dense, rich, and complex work very likely will be a central text for anyone interested in debating the changing theoretical landscape for performance studies and queer theory. All readers interested in what the future might hold for scholarship in the humanities should study Case's thought-provoking work, which is an essential addition to any college or university's collection." —Choice". . . this is a book that is enormously provocative, that will make you think and feel connected with the latest speculation on the implications of the electronic age we inhabit." —Lesbian Review of Books". . . definitely required reading for any future-thinking lesbian." —Lambda Book ReportThe Domain-Matrix is about the passage from print culture to electronic screen culture and how this passage affects the reader or computer user. Sections are organized to emulate, in a printed book, the reader's experience of computer windows. Case traces the portrait of virtual identities within queer and lesbian critical practice and virtual technologies.

"The Decolonial Imaginary is a smart, challenging book that disrupts a great deal of what we think we know . . . it will certainly be read seriously in Chicano/a studies." —Women's Review of BooksEmma Pérez discusses the historical methodology which has created Chicano history and argues that the historical narrative has often omitted gender. She poses a theory which rejects the colonizer's methodological assumptions and examines new tools for uncovering the hidden voices of Chicanas who have been relegated to silence.