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History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics - Georg Lukács

The MIT Press | 404 Pages | 1972-11-15 | ISBN-10 0262620200 | PDF | 22 MB

Lukacs' emphasis here on the importance of the ideological terrain in the class struggle was pathbreaking, and this book contains the fruits of a fine mind absorbed with interest and passion in the socialist cause. However the work is marred by a highly abstract and abstruse style of presentation, a style that would reach baffling lows in the writings of his followers in the Frankfort school.

In these pages, Lukacs scores some palpable hits against the ideological dominance of the bourgoisie, as well as against the opportunism and capitulation of the social democratic forces ascendant in the working class movements of Western Europe after WWI. His early recognition that it is precisely where capitalism is most highly developed that it is most difficult for the working class to organize against it turned Marx's assumptions about the progression of socialism on their head. Lukacs' emphasis on the necessary organic link between theory and forms of movement organization are lucid and welcome. But his failure to follow up on his insights and theorize methods of organization that go beyond Leninist dogma, even where he recognizes the problems involved in democratic-centralist party building, is a gaping weakness.

For those coming to the book out of an interest in the history and practice of socialism, I would recommend sticking to the shorter essays: "The Marxism of Rosa Luxemburg" for its examination of the links between crisis, class consciousness, and conflict; "Class Consciousness", for a relatively succinct presentation of the class struggle in the realm of ideology; and "Legality and Illegality" and "On the Methodology of Organization" for more concrete discussion of communist party practice. Most of the rest of the book consists of belabored and highly abstract philosophical arguments that assume a high level of familiarity with Kant, Hegel, and Marx.


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The Anti-aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture - Hal Foster (ed.)

Publisher: Bay Press 1983 | 159 Pages | ISBN: 094192002X | PDF | 44 MB

For the past few decades Hal Foster's critical gaze has encompassed the increasingly complex machinery of the culture industry. His observations push the boundaries of cultural criticism to establish a vantage point from which the seemingly disparate agendas of artists, patrons, and critics have a telling coherence. The Anti-Aesthetic is a touchstone volume for postmodern debate and theory. Though the cultural stakes and terms have changed over the last decade, this collection still illuminates--perhaps now even more lucidly--a vital current in contemporary criticism. Contributors: Jean Baudrillard, Douglas Crimp, Kenneth Frampton, Jrgen Habermas, Fredric Jameson, Rosalind Krauss, Craig Owens, Edward Said, and Gregory Ulmer.

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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=45HYZKKW

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Ricoeur and Lacan - Karl Simms

Continuum | 2007 | ISBN 0826477968 | 161 Pages | PDF OCR | 12 MB

This is the first comparative study of the work of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur and the psychoanalayst Jacques Lacan. The book explores the conflict between the two thinkers that arose from their differing views of ethics: Ricoeur's universalist stance drew on a phenomenological reading of Kant, whereas Lacan's was a relativist position, derived from a psychoanalytic reading of Freud and de Sade. Ricoeur and Lacan gives a full critical overview of the work of both figures, tracing the origins and development of their principal ideas, and identifying key similarities and differences. Not only a valuable and original addition to the literature on two major thinkers, Ricoeur and Lacan is also an important study of contemporary Continental ethics.


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http://rs756.rapidshare.com/files/296921508/0826477968_RicoeurLacan.pdf

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Critical Theory Since Plato (3rd Ed.) - Hazard Adams, Leroy Searle

Wadsworth | 1568 Pages | 2004-08-09 | ISBN-10 0155055046 | PDF | 55 MB

This outstanding anthology traces major critical statements from classic theorists like Plato to the contemporary. This standard historical textbook in the field focuses on important individual thinkers, and not particular schools of thought or isms. To serve the growing number of college courses, often required now, on criticism and theory, and to incorporate recent writings, the reader has been expanded and updated from the 1971 and 1992 editions. The selections, many of them excerpts from longer works, are presented chronologically by author. Brief introductions are pred for each author, and bibliographic and explanatory footnotes for each piece.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?xyzvzxftmdz

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Geographies of Postcolonialism - Dr Joanne Sharp

Sage Publications Ltd | 176 Pages | 2008-10-23 | ISBN-10 1412907799 | PDF | 2,7 MB


Geographies of Postcolonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolonialism. Written from a geographical perspective, the text includes extended explanations of the cultural and material aspects of the subject. Exploring postcolonialism through the geographies of imagination, knowledge, and power, the text is split into three comprehensive sections: Colonialisms,Neo-colonialisms, andPostcolonialisms.


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http://ifile.it/7b2tlhx/1412907799.rar

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Dialectic of Sedimentation and Innovation: Paul Ricoeur on Creativity after the Subject - Mabiala Justin, Robert kenzo

Peter Lang | 2009 | ISBN 1433105675 | 300 Pages | PDF OCR | 14 MB

One of the most important developments in the episteme of our time is the recognition that all being and all knowing are socially conditioned. This recognition raises the question of subjective creativity. Is creativity or innovation possible? And what is the locus of creativity? Is it the subject or the structure of the structures of being of which it the subject is part? Any notion of creativity that takes seriously the condition of being is therefore bound to deal with the perennial issue of freedom and determinism. This book examines the contribution of Paul Ricoeur to this question for the purpose of theological consumption.

Ricoeur's philosophical reconstruction of the subject as self creates a space midway between the modern self-positing subject and the postmodern deconstructed subject where reason rule but does not tyrannize. It is from this space that he proposes a view of humanity that argues that to be human is to be homo voluntas, homo lingua, and homo capax. The book seeks to theologically appropriate these notions for need of an Africa in quest of a new creative identity.


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Literary Criticism: A New History - Gary Day

Edinburgh University Press | 2008 | ISBN 0748615636 | PDF | 320 pages | 1.6 MB

A THE Book of the Week How many people know that Aristotle thought the best tragedies were those which ended happily? Or that the first mention of the motor car in literature may have been in 1791 in Boswell's Life of Johnson? Or that it was not unknown in the nineteenth century for book reviews to be 30,000 words long! These are just a few of the fascinating facts to be found in this absorbing history of literary criticism. From the Ancient Greek period to the present day we learn about critics' lives, the times in which they lived and how the same problems of interpretation and valuation persist through the ages. In this lively and engaging book, Gary Day questions whether the 'theory wars' of recent years have lost sight of literature itself, and makes surprising connections between criticism and a range of subjects, including the rise of money.

General readers will appreciate this informative, intriguing and often provocative account of the history of literary criticism; students will value the clear way in which it puts criticism into context; and academics will enjoy getting to grips with this challenge to the prevailing view about the nature of current theory.Key Features: *The author is a well-known writer and critic, and has been a regular contributor to the Times Higher *Integrates a wide range of writers, critics and texts into a continuous history *Passionately defends the idea of the 'literary'.

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Art and Ethical Criticism - Garry L. Hagberg

Wiley-Blackwell | 2008 | ISBN: 1405134836 | 304 pages | PDF | 1,9 MB

"Garry Hagberg's new anthology Art and Ethical Criticism consists of twelve new essays-ten by philosophers, one each by an art historian and a professor of French-together with a short foreword. The overall argument that emerges from these essays is that the first, broader topic (the powers and interest of art for human subjects) is more important than the second, narrower topic (the relation between artistic and moral value), and the essays are strongest exactly when they illuminate the powers and interest of art, precisely by not separating the artistic and ethical features of a work sharply from each other." (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, January 2009)

Ethics and aesthetics are often dismissed as disciplines fraught with relativism and individual preference. Further, discussions of moral behavior often use literary allusions as examples while aestheticians wonder about how the ethics of a piece's development affects "artistic integrity." Hagberg (Univ. of East Anglia) draws together some of the top thinkers in aesthetics to consider the cross-impacts between these philosophical disciplines. The selections are widely representative of approaches to ethical criticism of artworks, and the ethical/aesthetic dimensions of the literary, visual, and auditory arts.

The introductory essay by Paul Guyer displays both the strength and weakness of the volume: it is thorough, meticulous, and well written but largely incomprehensible unless one already knows quite a bit of aesthetic and ethical theory. On the other end of the scale, Carolyn Korsmeyer's article on architectural genuineness is exceptional in its ability to introduce readers to an interesting problem not often considered. But little is resolved. This volume is uneven, but some unevenness may be the point. Hagberg's connection to Wittgenstein is well known. Certainly these essays represent a family resemblance model of thinking about art and ethical criticism. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and up.

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