It is widely supposed that the most suitable partner will be someone very much like oneself; gay fiction and cinema are often organized around this assumption. Nonetheless, power differentials are remarkably persistent--as well as sexy. What are the personal and political implications of this insight?

Sinfield argues that hierarchies in interpersonal relations are continuous with the main power differentials of our social and political life (gender, class, age, and race); therefore it is not surprising that they govern our psychic lives. Recent writing enables an exploration of their...

It is widely supposed that the most suitable partner will be someone very much like oneself; gay fiction and cinema are often organized around this assumption. Nonetheless, power differentials are remarkably persistent--as well as sexy. What are the personal and political implications of this insight?

Sinfield argues that hierarchies in interpersonal relations are continuous with the main power differentials of our social and political life (gender, class, age, and race); therefore it is not surprising that they govern our psychic lives. Recent writing enables an exploration of their...

Since its launch in 1987 Textual Practice has established itself as a leading journal of radical literary theory. New approaches to literary texts are naturally a major feature, but in exploring apparently discrete areas such as philosophy, history, law, science, architecture, gender and media studies, this work pays no heed to traditional academic boundaries.

From Angus Wilson to Pat Barker and Salman Rushdie, British Culture of the Post-War is an ideal starting point for those studying cultural developments in Britain of recent years. Chapters on individual people and art forms give a clear and concise overview of the progression of different genres. They also discuss the wider issues of Britain's relationship with America and Europe, and the idea of Britishness.
Each section is introduced with a short discussion of the major historical events of the period. Read as a whole, British Culture of the Postwar will give students a...

From Angus Wilson to Pat Barker and Salman Rushdie, British Culture of the Post-War is an ideal starting point for those studying cultural developments in Britain of recent years. Chapters on individual people and art forms give a clear and concise overview of the progression of different genres. They also discuss the wider issues of Britain's relationship with America and Europe, and the idea of Britishness.
Each section is introduced with a short discussion of the major historical events of the period. Read as a whole, British Culture of the Postwar will give students a...

Papers include: Tragedy and the nationalist condition of criticism Thomas Doucherty--Descartes, Baudrillard, Dryden and a consideration of cultural relations between England and France in the late seventeenth century.ILaodamia and the moaning of Mary John Barrell--changing critical responses to Wordsworth's heroic version of masculinity. Melodrama as Avant-garde: enacting a new subjectivity Simon Shepherd--nineteenth-century English radicals and translations of French melodrama. The diasporic imaginary: theorizing the Indian diaspora Vijay Mishra; Bisexuality, heterosexuality and wishful...

Luxurious Sexualities contains some of the most path- breaking adventurous critical writing currently to be found in Britain. Focusing on eighteenth century sexuality it is intriguing, controversial and provoking.
Textual Practice contains articles relating to women, popular culture, visual media, and ethnic and sexual minorities.

Following a first edition that generated wide-spread debate, Cultural Politics Queer Reading is a bold study of the future of critical theory and the role of gender, ethnicity and cultures within academic literary studies.
An illuminating introduction to the second edition revisits the book's agenda for a new form of cultural critique and a truly political lesbian and gay studies. Sinfield renews his call for an 'Englit' that incorporates ongoing study of the cultures of ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
Challenging the assumptions that have shaped the study of English...

Following a first edition that generated wide-spread debate, Cultural Politics - Queer Reading is a bold study of the future of critical theory and the role of gender, ethnicity and cultures within academic literary studies.

An illuminating introduction to the second edition revisits the book's agenda for a new form of cultural critique and a truly political lesbian and gay studies. Sinfield renews his call for an 'Englit' that incorporates ongoing study of the cultures of ethnicity, gender and sexuality.

Challenging the assumptions that have shaped the study of English...

Shakespeare, Authority, Sexuality is a powerful reassessment of cultural materialism as a way of understanding textuality, history and culture, by one of the founding figures of this critical movement. Alan Sinfield examines cultural materialism both as a body of ongoing argument and as it informs particular works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, especially in relation to sexuality in early-modern England and queer theory.

The book has several interlocking preoccupations:

• theories of textuality and reading
• the political location of...