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.

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.

Why think? Not, according to Gilles Deleuze, in order to be clever, but because thinking transforms life. Why read literature? Not for pure entertainment, Deleuze tells us, but because literature can recreate the boundaries of life. With his emphasis on creation, the future and the enhancement of life, along with his crusade against 'common sense', Deleuze offers some of the most liberating, exhilarating ideas in twentieth-century thought. This book offers a way in to Deleuzean thought through such topics as:
* 'becoming'
* time and the flow of life
* the ethics of thinking
*...

In this clear, user-friendly guide, Claire Colebrook provides an historical and theoretical overview of irony, tracing its development from Socrates to the 21st century, and explores the challenge that irony presents to communication and representation in literature.

Ever since Deleuze and Guattari provocatively declared that all 'becoming' must go by way of a 'becoming-woman' their work has been the subject of intense feminist interrogation. This volume highlights the key points of this ongoing inquiry, focusing particularly on the implications of Deleuze's work for a specifically feminist philosophy. Deleuze and Feminist Theory brings together the work of some of Deleuze's finest commentators and today's most important feminist thinkers. For Deleuze, reading a philosopher or thinker ought never to be a question of blind allegiance or assessing the...

In an era that proclaims itself postironic, the question and problem of irony are of more interest than ever. In this compelling inquiry, Claire Colebrook first takes up all the major figures in post-Cartesian philosophy on the subject of irony: Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche. She similarly examines the modern thinkers in the Anglo-Saxon tradition: Rorty, Searle, and de Man. She then engages in an analysis of the Continental canon and the ironic dimension that marks contemporary philosophy. Beyond the question of irony, Colebrook treats the presence of irony in the history of philosophy...

This accessible introduction to the comprehensive work of the influential French thinker Gilles Deleuze explains key Deleuzian concepts and illustrates the political, stylistic, and theoretical complexities of each. A glossary of key Deleuzean terms and a description of the impact of Deleuze are provided.

The Chess Master is a story of escape and salvation, and the clue for both is chess. The protagonist, Wang Yisheng, undergoes a gradual transformation from "chess fool" to "chess master" -- from an alienated young man obsessed with the material needs of life to a spiritually enlightened transmitter of the Chinese tradition. By reversing the pervasive anti-traditional trend in modern Chinese literature and eschewing any overt influence from Western literature, Ah Cheng has created in the The Chess Master a radically new fiction that is both thoroughly modern and deeply imbued...

This book gives readers a better understanding of Chinese notions of time in the tradition of Chinese historical thinking. Consisting of nine essays, this work includes in-depth studies of Chinese ways of conceiving "time" from a variety of philosophical, historical, and anthropological perspectives.

Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang Through the Song is a study of emerging kinship structures in a central coastal Fujian province from the 9th through 13th centuries. Chapters focus on the establishment of elite kin groups, the structure and internal segmentation of those kin groups, and marriage patterns, religion, and education. The book argues that cultural innovation often begins at a local level and challenges the current paradigm that emphasizes the link between locality and the elite in...