John J. Joughin

Shakespeare continues to feature in the construction and refashioning of national cultures and identities in a variety of forms. Often co-opted to serve nationalism, Shakespeare has also served to contest it in complex and contradictory ways.

Shakespeare and National Culture

Simon Malpas

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. The interest in aesthetics in Philosophy, Literary and Cultural Studies is growing rapidly. 'The new aestheticism' contains exemplary essays by key practitioners in these fields which demonstrate the importance of this area of enquiry.

The new aestheticism

David Owen

Scott Brewster

Richard J. Walker

This text asks what it is to be human. Spectres, cyborgs, clones, aliens - representations of the inhuman hybrid seem more various and multiform than ever before. It examines the impact of science and technology on culture and representation.

Thinking the Limits of the Human

Inhuman Reflections

The rise of literary theory spawned the rise of anti-aestheticism, so that even for cultural theorists, discussions concerning aesthetics were often carried out in a critical shorthand that failed to engage with the particularity of the work of art, much less the specificities of aesthetic experience. This book introduces the notion of a new aestheticism--"new" insofar as it identifies a turn taken by a number of important contemporary thinkers towards the idea that focussing on the specifically aesthetic impact of a work of art or literature has the potential to open radically different ways of thinking about identity, politics and culture.

John J. Joughin

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