The Ethics of Cultural Studies

Description

Ethical questions feature prominently on today's cultural and political agendas. The Ethics of Cultural Studies presents an ethical manifesto for Cultural Studies, an exploration of its current ethical and political concerns, and of its future challenges. The book focuses on a number of key issues: National, racial and sexual identity; Representation; Violence and the media; The relationship between body and technology; The science-culture 'wars'; The text engages with the writings of the important theorists of ethics and culture: Giorgio Agamben; Judith Butler; Jacques Derrida; Stuart Hall; Donna Haraway; N. Katherine Hayles; Ernesto Laclau; Emmanuel Levinas; Jean-Francois Lyotard; Samuel Weber; The book is concerned with ethics in the material world, and draws on examples as diverse as cloning and genetics, asylum and immigration, experiments in plastic surgery and in electronic and digital art, memories of the Holocaust, September 11th and media representations of violence and crime. The Ethics of Cultural Studies is a groundbreaking intervention that sets the debate on ethics in cultural study, and offers an invaluable source of ideas for students of contemporary culture.

Joanna Zylinska is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is the author of The Cyborg Experiments (Continuum, 2002).

"'This is a path-breaking book and an outstanding contribution to Cultural Studies... This is a book which deserves to become a new classic in the field.' Angela McRobbie, Professor of Communications, Goldsmiths College, University of London; 'The book brilliantly demonstrates the urgency of an ethical response in contemporary politics, ranging from immigration and asylum policies, new manifestations of racism and anti-Semitism, to the technologization of bodies in medicine and arts. This is an important contribution to cultural studies and postmodern ethics alike'. Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, Julian Park Professor of Comparative Literature, Suny at Buffalo; 'The Ethics of Cultural Studies provides an impressive guide through the recent theoretical debates pertaining to cultural studies and its subject matters... This is a book for specialist and non-specialist academic readers alike.' Dave Boothroyd, University of Kent"