Concepts of the self / Anthony Elliott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elliott, Anthony, 1964- author.

Series:

Key concepts in the social sciences

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Self.

Physical Description:

x, 208 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

Third edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Polity Press, 2013.

Summary:

More than 10 years on from its original publication, Concepts of the Self still mesmerizes with its insight, comprehensiveness and critique of debates over the self in the social sciences and humanities. Anthony Elliott has written a new chapter for this third edition to address some of the most recent developments in the field, and offers a powerful challenge to what he describes as 'the emergence of anti-theories of the self'. The first two editions have proven exceptionally popular among students and teachers worldwide. Elliott provides a scintillating introduction to the major accounts of the self from symbolic interactionism and psychoanalysis to post-feminism and postmodernism. This new edition has been extensively revised and updated to take account of more recent theoretical developments, and a new chapter has been added on individualization which focuses on how the self becomes an agent of 'do-it-yourself' autobiographical reconstruction in an age of intensive globalization. Concepts of the Self remains the most lively, lucid and compelling introduction to contemporary controversies over the self and self-identity in the social sciences and humanities. Written by an author of international reputation, it connects debates about the self directly to identity politics, the sociology of personal relationships and intimacy, and the politics of sexuality, and will continue to be an invaluable introductory text for students in of social and political theory, sociology, social psychology, cultural studies, and gender studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Self, Society and Everyday Life 28

Self, Symbols and Others: Symbolic Interactionism 30

Presentations of Self: Goffman 37

Reflexivity and the Self: Giddens 44

2 The Repression of Self 53

Psychoanalysis and the Self 56

Culture and Repression 72

3 Technologies of the Self 85

Technologies of the Self: Foucault 88

Governmentality: New Technologies, New Selves 103

4 Self, Sexuality and Gender 112

Feminism and Psychoanalysis: Two Recent Views 112

The Politics of Gender Performance: Butler 124

Queer Theory: Contesting Self, Defying Gender 130

5 The Postmodern Self 138

All that is Modern Melts into Postmodern? 143

Strategies of the Self: Modern and Postmodern 153

6 The Individualized Self: From Reinvention to Mobile Lives 161

Individualization of the Self 163

Self-Reinvention: The New Individualism 170

The Mobile Self 176.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780745661889

0745661882

0745661890

9780745661896

OCLC:

855703795