Introducing Cultural Studies

Introducing Literary Theories is an ideal introduction for those coming to literary theory for the first time.

This book provides an innovative contribution to the emerging field of culture and development through the lens of cultural rights, arguing in favour of a fruitful dialogue between human rights, development studies, critical cultural studies, and concerns about the protection and preservation of cultural diversity. It breaks with established approaches by introducing the themes of aesthetics, embodiment, narrative and peace studies into the field of culture and development, and in doing so, proposes both an expanded conception of cultural rights and a holistic vision of development that not only includes these elements in a central way, but which argues that genuine sustainability must include the cultural dimension, including the notion of cultural justice as recognition, protection and respect extended to the many expressions of human imagination in this world.

This volume is an ideal introduction for those coming to literary theory for the first time. It covers the major theoretical approaches: Bakhtinian Criticism, Structuralism, Feminist Theory, Marxist Literary Theories, Reader-Response Theories, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Deconstruction, Poststructuralism, New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, Postcolonial Theory, Gay Studies/ Queer Theories, Cultural Studies and Postmodernism. Each chapter contains a clear presentation of the theory in question and applies it to an analysis of a key literary text to help students understand both the methodology and the practice of literary theory. The book is rounded out by useful bibliographies and a glossary of critical terms.

In the Diaspora Strikes Back , the eminent ethnic and cultural studies scholar Juan Flores flips the process on its head: what happens to the home country when it is being constantly fed by emigrants returning from abroad?