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Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading
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Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading Hardcover - 1992

by Alan Sinfield


From the publisher

If we come to consciousness within a language that is complicit with the social order, how can we conceive, let alone organize, resistance to that social order? This key question in the politics of reading and subcultural practice informs Alan Sinfield's book on writing in early-modern England. New historicism has often shown people trapped in a web of language and culture. In lively discussions of writings by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sidney, and Donne, Sinfield reassesses the scope of dissidence and control. The early-modern state, Christianity, and the cultural apparatus, despite an ideology of unity and explicit violence, could not but allow space to challenging voices. Sinfield shows that disruptions in concepts of hierarchy, nationality, gender, and sexuality force their way into literary texts. Sinfield is often provocative. He "rewrites" Julius Caesar to produce a different politics, compares Sidney's idea of poetry to Leonid Brezhnev's, and reinstates the concept of character in the face of post-structuralist theory. He keeps the current politics of literary study in view, especially in a substantial chapter on Shakespeare in the U.S. Sinfield subjects interactions between class, ethnicity, sexuality, and the professional structures of the humanities to a detailed and hard-hitting critique, and argues for new commitments to collectivities and subcultures.

From the rear cover

"A coherent and compelling politics of reading. . . . Sinfield is intervening in a cultural debate not merely about the meaning of the texts he considers but about the very nature of literary study itself. Though his reading of central Renaissance texts such as Sidney's Defence, Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Shakespeare's Othello, and Donne's lyrics are wonderfully agile and alert, the true stakes of his argument are the protocols of the institutions in which we read and study literature."--David Scott Kastan, author of Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time "This is an important and urgently needed contribution to the field of culture criticism both in the U. K. and in the U.S.A. Until fairly recently, culture criticism on both sides of the Atlantic has been dominated by the cultural apparatus of the New Right. Sinfield's energetic and courageous intervention helps to break the silence of dissident communities and it is therefore a welcome rejoinder to the neo-conservative chorus."--Michael D. Bristol, author of Shakespeare's America, America's Shakespeare

From the jacket flap

"A coherent and compelling politics of reading. . . . Sinfield is intervening in a cultural debate not merely about the meaning of the texts he considers but about the very nature of literary study itself. Though his reading of central Renaissance texts such as Sidney's Defence, Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Shakespeare's Othello, and Donne's lyrics are wonderfully agile and alert, the true stakes of his argument are the protocols of the institutions in which we read and study literature."--David Scott Kastan, author of Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time "This is an important and urgently needed contribution to the field of culture criticism both in the U. K. and in the U.S.A. Until fairly recently, culture criticism on both sides of the Atlantic has been dominated by the cultural apparatus of the New Right. Sinfield's energetic and courageous intervention helps to break the silence of dissident communities and it is therefore a welcome rejoinder to the neo-conservative chorus."--Michael D. Bristol, author of Shakespeare's America, America's Shakespeare

Details

  • Title Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading
  • Author Alan Sinfield
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 380
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of California Press, Berkeley, C.A.
  • Date 1992
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780520076068 / 0520076060
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects English literature - Early modern, 1500-1700, Social problems in literature
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 91032961
  • Dewey Decimal Code 820.900
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Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading

by Sinfield, Alan.

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Berkeley, C.A.: University of California Press., 1992. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Hardcover 1992 edition. Dust jacket, covers and text in very good condition. Binding firm. Some underlining in pen to pages, with parenthesis and margin astericks. A number of page corners creased. {365 pages}.
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Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading

by Alan Sinfield

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  • Hardcover
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Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520076068 / 0520076060
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University of California Press, 1992-09-28. Hardcover. Good.
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