We live in a world of the image. In many ways images have replaced words as the defining aspect of cultural identity, while at the same time they have become part of our global culture. The rapidly developing discipline of visual cultural studies has become the key area for examining the issues of the image. Visual Cultures and Critical Theory provides students with a clear guide for understanding ideas of critical theory through the visual. Taking up a range of themes such as spectatorship, pleasure, power, doubles, hallucination, and the frame, the book explains them within the context of...

Does a new media culture truly exist? This book explores the newness of new media, looking critically at key concepts and theory to show how it digitality affects our lives. Filled with visual examples that explore ideas of interactivity, surveillance and power, it is key reading for students of media and cultural studies.

The gift represents one of the most complex issues in cultural relations. It defines and pervades individual and social interaction; it forms the basis of our everyday life; it is embedded in power, subjectivity, pleasure, and meaning. The Gift and Visual Culture explores the relationship between the image and systems of exchange. It explores the constructions of the gift in psychoanalysis, cultural theory, and philosophy. Key theorists examined include Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, D.W. Winnicott, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, and Julia Kristeva. It draws on a wide range of visual...

Theory has become increasingly significant in the field of the visual, giving rise to a whole discipline of 'visual culture' situated within the disciplines of media/communication/cultural studies and also within history of art. This book aims to offer a clear exposition of their ideas and how they have been used in visual cultural studies.