Routledge Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation (The History of Continental Philosophy)

"Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation" analyses the major themes and developments in a period that brought continental philosophy to the forefront of scholarship in a variety of humanities and social science disciplines and that set the agenda for philosophical thought on the continent and elsewhere from the 1960s to the present. Focusing on the years 1960-1984, the volume examines the major figures associated with poststructuralism and the second generation of critical theory, the two dominant movements that emerged in the 1960s: Althusser, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, Lyotard, Irigaray, and Habermas. Influential thinkers such as Serres, Bourdieu, and Rorty, who are not easily placed in "standard" histories of the period, are also covered. Beyond this, thematic essays engage with issues as diverse as the Nietzschean legacy, the linguistic turn in continental thinking, the phenomenological inheritance of Gadamer and Ricoeur, the influence of psychoanalysis, the emergence of feminist thought and a philosophy of sexual difference, the renewal of the critical theory tradition, and the importation of continental philosophy into literary theory. Review 'Both comprehensive and detailed while being accessible to a broad readership, from the generalist interested in basic ideas and facts to the specialist, who may require new perspectives on and approaches to specific thinkers and movements.' --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 'This excellent volume will be an important aid to a wide range of readers who will benefit from the clarity of the explications and the breadth of the treatments.' --John Protevi, Louisiana State University About the Author Alan D. Schrift is F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Philosophy Department at Grinnell College, USA.