A genuinely accessible introduction to Freud's theory and its application to literary and cultural studies. Few figures have had as much influence on Western thought as Sigmund Freud. His ideas permeate our culture to such a degree that an understanding of them is indispensable. Yet many otherwise well-informed students in the humanities labor under misconceptions about Freudian theory. There are countless introductions to Freudian psychoanalysis but, surprisingly, none that combine a genuinely accessible account of Freud's ideas with an introduction to their use in literary and cultural studies, as this book does. Written specifically for use by advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses dealing with literary and cultural criticism, it is also of interest to the general reader. The first part of the book explains Freud's key ideas and refutes many popular misconceptions, using examples throughout. The assumption underlying this account is that Freud offers not simply a model of the mind, but an analysis of the relation between the individual and society. The second part addresses the implications of Freudian psychoanalysis for the study of literature and culture, again using plentiful examples. Existing books focus either onFreudian psychoanalysis in general or on psychoanalytic literary or cultural criticism; the latter tend to be abstract and theoretical in nature. None of them are suitable for readers who are interested in psychoanalysis as a tool for literary and cultural criticism but have no firm knowledge of Freud's ideas. Freud's Theory and Its Use in Literary and Cultural Studies fills this gap. Henk de Berg is Professor of German at the Universityof Sheffield, UK.

The first-ever comprehensive examination of Tzvetan Todorov's cultural theory and his place in European thought. Originally known for his groundbreaking work in literary studies, the Bulgarian-born French scholar Tzvetan Todorov (1939-2017) was one of the world's foremost cultural theorists. His interventions cover an astounding range of topics, from narratology to ethics, from painting to politics, and from the Enlightenment to current affairs. This collection of essays is the first-ever comprehensive examination of Todorov as a cultural critic. It offers in-depth discussions of the crucial elements of his thought since his historical and cultural turn in the early 1980s: his "marginal centricity" within the French intellectual field, and his relations with other French thinkers; his philosophical precursors and influences, notably Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Mikhail Bakhtin; his conception of the Enlightenment; his views on historiography, and on the possibility and limitations of passing historical judgments; his defense of a European identity; and his political philosophy, including his critique of totalitarianism, neoconservativism, and neoliberalism. Written by international experts in the fields of Enlightenment studies, literary and cultural studies, critical theory, and intellectual history, this volume offers both an introduction to one of the most important postwar European thinkers and discussions of some of the most hotly debated topics in cultural studies today.

The first book that presents key original texts from the modern German philosophical tradition to English-language students and scholars of German, with introductions, commentaries, and annotations that make them accessible. German-language thinkers such as Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud are central to modernity. Yet their reception in the English-speaking world has largely depended on translations, a situation that has often hampered full engagement with the rhetorical and philosophical complexity of the German history of ideas. The present volume, the first of its kind, is a response to this situation. After an introduction charting the remarkable flowering of German-language thought since the eighteenth century, it offers extracts - in the original German - from sixteen major philosophical texts, with extensive introductions and annotations in English. All extracts are carefully chosen to introduce the individual thinkers while allowing the reader to pursue broader themes such as the fate of reason or the history of modern selfhood. The book offers students and scholars of German a complement to linguistic, historical, andliterary study by giving them access to the wealth of German-language philosophy. It represents a new way into the work of a succession of thinkers who have defined modern philosophy and thus remain of crucial relevance today. The philosophers: Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Georg Lukacs, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Jurgen Habermas. Henk de Berg is Professor of German at the University of Sheffield. Duncan Large is Professor of European Literature and Translation at the University of East Anglia.

Niklas Luhmanns Systemtheorie ist heute eines der zentralen Themen in der literaturwissenschaftlichen Diskussion. Unterbelichtet ist dabei freilich bislang der spezifisch differenztheoretische Charakter von Luhmanns Auffassung gesellschaftlicher Kommunikation geblieben. Dieser Aspekt wird hier fruchtbar gemacht und mit textanalytischen Verfahren der funktionalistischen Sprachphilosophie (J. L. Austin, L. Wittgenstein) verbunden. In einer Fallstudie zur Goethe-Rezeption des Jungen Deutschland werden die literaturhistoriographischen Implikationen dieses Verstandnisses von Kommunikation illustriert."

Die primar soziologische (Luhmannsche) Systemtheorie beginnt seit einiger Zeit auch in die Disziplinen der Literaturwissenschaft, Kunstwissenschaft und Musikwissenschaft auszustrahlen. In diesem Band werden die Konsequenzen in zwolf Beitragen erstmals auf interdisziplinarer Ebene thematisiert. Dabei geht es nicht darum, die Profilierung nur einer einzigen Adaptionsweise der Systemtheorie zu betreiben, sondern ganz unterschiedliche Tendenzen systemtheoretisch inspirierten Arbeitens in den Geisteswissenschaften zu beleuchten."