NYU Press Theorizing Culture: An Interdisciplinary Critique After Postmodernism

An accessible introduction to the expanding field of cultural studies, Theorizing Culture provides a range of critical perspectives on contemporary cultural forms, practices, and identities. In an era of posts', terms such as postmodernism, postcolonialism, post-Enlightenment, post-feminism, post-disciplinary, and even post-history pervade much of the conceptual terrain for cultural research. At the same time, more familiar analytical categories, such as representation, experience, reality, and power, have been neglected. This book agrees with the important postmodern focus on contingency, temporality, and situational definitions of the world. Without the neutral ground of modernism beneath our feet, we face culturally specific, contingent questions of value. Extending beyond the postmodern debate to reinstate the critical dimension in cultural analysis, this anthology covers a wide range of contemporary subjects, such as the body, AIDS, race,the environment, and virtual reality. Review "A first and welcomed attempt to map the spiritual landscape of New York City. New York Glory covers deftly the old changing denominations as well as the new immigrant religions. Old assumptions about secular Gotham may need some revision after reading this broad collection."-Jose Casanova, author of "Public Religions in the Modern World" "In "New York Glory" the usually peripheral becomes foreground, and the core background."-"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion", "The editors are to be encouraged for gathering together original material from some of the most current research on relgions in the city."-"American Jewish History", "These two edited volumes bring together a variety of authors to offer a rear combination: they focus on religion in urban America and on particular cities, namely New York City and Chicago...They are necessary reading for anyone who seeks to understand this area."-"Sociology of Religion", "This helpful sourcebook strives to be 'anatomically correct' to the religious demography of New York, providing more on Catholics and Jews, Hispanics and African Americans, than Buddhists, Methodists, or New Age devotees. There's virtue in this approach, and the texture is rich. If you think of New York as a monument to secularity--or as positively the work of the Devil--this book will make you think again."-John Stratton Hawley, Barnard College, Columbia University About the Author Founding editor of Time and Society, Barbara Adam teaches social theory and women's studies at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Stuart Allan lectures in media and cultural studies at the University of Glamorgan.