Routledge Critical Thinkers
About the Book Series
Routledge Critical Thinkers is designed for students who need an accessible introduction to the key figures in contemporary critical thought. The books provide crucial orientation for further study and equip readers to engage with theorists' original texts.
The volumes in the Routledge Critical Thinkers series place each key theorist in his or her historical and intellectual context and explain:
- why he or she is important
- what motivated his or her work
- what his or her key ideas are
- who and what influenced the thinker
- who and what the thinker has influenced
- what to read next and why.
Featuring extensively annotated guides to further reading, Routledge Critical Thinkers is the first point of reference for any student wishing to investigate the work of a specific theorist.
Jean Baudrillard
2nd Edition
By Richard J. Lane
January 14, 2009
Jean Baudrillard is one of the most controversial theorists of our time, famous for his claim that the Gulf War never happened and for his provocative writing on terrorism, specifically 9/11. This new and fully updated second edition includes: an introduction to Baudrillard’s key works and ...
Edward Said
2nd Edition
By Bill Ashcroft, Pal Ahluwalia
December 03, 2008
Edward Said is perhaps best known as the author of the landmark study Orientalism, a book which changed the face of critical theory and shaped the emerging field of post-colonial studies, and for his controversial journalism on the Palestinian political situation. Looking at the context and the ...
Hannah Arendt
1st Edition
By Simon Swift
November 28, 2008
Hannah Arendt's work offers a powerful critical engagement with the cultural and philosophical crises of mid-twentieth-century Europe. Her idea of the banality of evil, made famous after her report on the trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, remains controversial to this day. In the face...
Emmanuel Levinas
1st Edition
By Seán Hand
October 24, 2008
Best known for his theories of ethics and responsibility, Emmanuel Levinas was one of the most profound and influential thinkers of the last century. In this clear, accessible guide, Seán Hand examines why Levinas is increasingly fundamental to the study of literature and culture today. ...
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
1st Edition
By Jason Edwards
October 09, 2008
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick was one of the most significant literary theorists of the last forty years and a key figure in contemporary queer theory. In this engaging and inspiring guide, Jason Edwards: introduces and explains key terms such as affects, the first person, homosocialities, and queer ...
Theodor Adorno
1st Edition
By Ross Wilson
January 24, 2008
The range of Adorno's achievement, and the depth of his insights, is breathtaking and daunting. His work on literary, artistic, and musical forms, his devastating indictment of modern industrial society, and his profound grasp of Western culture from Homer to Hollywood have made him one ...
Stephen Greenblatt
1st Edition
By Mark Robson
December 11, 2007
Stephen Greenblatt is the most important exponent of 'new historicism', a dynamic critical movement which rejects the traditional reliance on individual canonical texts, exploring a multitude of other, more marginal works and voices. Questioning not just literary but social, political and cultural ...
Theorists of Modernist Poetry: T.S. Eliot, T.E. Hulme, Ezra Pound
1st Edition
By Rebecca Beasley
November 26, 2007
Modernist poetry heralded a radical new aesthetic of experimentation, pioneering new verse forms and subjects, and changing the very notion of what it meant to be a poet. This volume examines T.S. Eliot, T.E. Hulme and Ezra Pound, three of the most influential figures of the modernist movement, and...
Paul Virilio
1st Edition
By Ian James
September 07, 2007
Paul Virilio is a challenging and original thinker whose work on technology, state power and war is increasingly relevant today. Exploring Virilio's main texts from their political and historical contexts, and case studies from contemporary culture and media in order to explain his ...
Cyberculture Theorists: Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway
1st Edition
By David Bell
February 23, 2007
This book surveys a ‘cluster’ of works that seek to explore the cultures of cyberspace, the Internet and the information society. It introduces key ideas, and includes detailed discussion of the work of two key thinkers in this area, Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway, as well as outlining the ...
Theorists of the Modernist Novel: James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf
1st Edition
By Deborah Parsons
December 19, 2006
Tracing the developing modernist aesthetic in the thought and writings of James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf, Deborah Parsons considers the cultural, social and personal influences upon the three writers. Exploring the connections between their theories, Parsons pays particular ...
Antonio Gramsci
1st Edition
By Steven Jones
October 18, 2006
For readers encountering Gramsci for the first time, Steve Jones covers key elements of his thought through detailed discussion and studies the historical context of the theorist's thought, offers examples of putting Gramsci's ideas into practice in the analysis of contemporary culture and ...