Gender

ISBN-13: 9780333994573 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 276 str.

Claire Colebrook

Opis

This book offers a clear introductory overview of the concept of gender. It places gender in its historical contexts and traces its development from the Enlightenment to the present, before moving on to the evolution of the concept of gender from within the various stances of feminist criticism, and recent developments in queer theory and post-feminism. Close analysis of key literary texts, including Frankenstein, Paradise Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream, shows how specific styles of literature enable reflection on gender.

Spis treści

General Editor's Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Gender Before Modernity.- Gender as Form and the Masculinity of Reason.- Modernity and the Materiality of Gender.- Sex without Gender.- Beyond Sex and Gender.- Sexual Difference and Embodiment.- Sexuality and Queer Theory.- Conclusion: Reading Gender: Frankenstein.- Bibliography.- Index.

O autorze

CLAIRE COLEBROOK teaches English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of a number of articles on feminist theory, and her recent books include Ethics and Representation (1999) and Understanding Deleuze (2002).

Blurb

Why has Western thought been so persistent in its organisation of human bodies, and other categories, in terms of the binary opposition male and female? Is gender nothing more than an ideology, or does it have its basis in sexual difference?

This invaluable introductory guide offers a clear overview of the concept, and problem, of gender. Claire Colebrook places the term in its historical contexts and traces its development from the Enlightenment to the present, before moving on to the evolution of the concept of gender from within the various stances of feminist criticism, and exploring recent developments in queer theory and post-feminism. Close analysis of key literary texts, including Frankenstein, Paradise Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream, shows how specific styles of literature enable reflection on gender.