Books published by Rowman & Littlefield International

What do Germany's memorials, films, artworks, memory debates and national commemorations tell us about the lives of Germans today? How did the Wall in the Head come to replace the Wall that fell in 1989? The old identities of East and West, which all but dissolved in joyous embraces as the Berlin Wall fell, emerged once more after formal re-unification a year later in 1990. 2015 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of that German re-unification. Yet Germany remains divided; a mutual distrust lingers, and national history remains contentious.The material, social, cultural and psychic effects of re-unification on the lives of eastern and western Germans since 1989 all demand again asking fundamental questions about history, social change and ideology. Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders puts affective life at the centre of these questions, both in the role affect played in mobilizing East Germans to overthrow their regime and as a sign of disappointment after formal reunification. Using contemporary Germany as a lens the book explores broader debates about borders, memory and subjectivity.

Philosophy, Myth and Epic Cinema looks at the power of cinema in creating ideas that inspire our culture. Sylvie Magerstdt discusses the relationship between art, illusion and reality, a theme that has been part of philosophical debate for centuries. She argues that with the increase in use of digital technologies in modern cinema, this debate has entered a new phase. She discusses the notion of illusions as a system of stories and values that inspire a culture similar to other grand narratives, such as mythology or religion. Cinema thus becomes the postmodern ';mythmaking machine' par excellence in a world that finds it increasingly difficult to create unifying concepts and positive illusions that can inspire and give hope.The author draws on the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Siegfried Kracauer, and Gilles Deleuze to demonstrate the relevance of continental philosophy to a reading of mainstream Hollywood cinema. The book argues that our longing for illusion is particularly strong in times of crisis, illustrated through an exploration of the recent revival of historic and epic myths in Hollywood cinema, including films such as Troy, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Clash of the Titans.

Paris, along with New York, was one of the main centres of the fashion industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But although New York based garment workers were mobilized early in the twentieth century, Paris was the stage of vibrant revolutions and uprisings throughout the nineteenth century. As a consequence, French women workers were radicalized much earlier, creating a unique and unprecedented moment in both labour and feminist history.Seamstresses were central figures in the socio-political and cultural events of nineteenth and early twentieth century France but their stories and political writings have remained marginalized and obscured. Drawing on a wide range of published and unpublished documents from the industrial revolution, ';Sewing, Fighting and Writing' is a foucauldian genealogy of the Parisian seamstress. Looking at the assemblage of radical practices in work, politics and culture, it explores the constitution of the self of the seamstress in the era of early industrialization and revolutionary events and considers her contribution to the socio-political and cultural formations in modernity.

Gunther Anders's prolific philosophy of technology is undergoing a major revival but has never been translated into English. Prometheanism mobilises Anders's pragmatic thought and current trends in critical theory to rethink the constellations of power that are configuring themselves around our increasingly ';smart' machines. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to Anders's philosophy of technology with an annotated translation of his visionary essay ';On Promethean Shame', part of The Obsolescence of Human Beings 1 published in 1956.The essay analyses feelings of curtailment, obsolescence and solitude that become manifest whilst we interact with machines. When technological solutions begin to make humans look embarrassingly limited and flawed, new emotional vulnerabilities are exposed. These need to be thought, because our wavering confidence leaves us unprotected in an ever more (un)transparent, connected yet fractured world.

Critically interrogating the popular concept of cosmopolitanism, this book offers new insight of what it means to be a world citizen today.

Critically interrogating the popular concept of cosmopolitanism, this book offers new insight of what it means to be a world citizen today.

Written by leading statesmen and scholars, this book examines the economic, political, and cultural relations between Europe and emerging Asian nations.

Written by leading statesmen and scholars, this book examines the economic, political, and cultural relations between Europe and emerging Asian nations.

This book discusses the recent wave of global mobilisations from an unusual angle, explaining what aspects of protests spread from one country to another, how this happened, and why diffusion occurred in certain contexts but not in others

Sren Kierkegaard is often cast as the forefather of existentialism and an anti-Hegelian proponent of the single individual. Yet this book calls these traditional characterizations into question by arguing that Kierkegaard offers not only a systematic critique of idealist philosophy, but more surprisingly, a political ontology that is paradoxically at home in the context of twenty-first-century philosophical and political thought.Through a close consideration of his authorship in the context of nineteenth-century German idealism, Michael ONeill Burns argues that Kierkegaard develops an ontology, anthropology and theory of the political that are outcomes of his critical appropriation of the philosophical projects of Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte. While starting out in the philosophical concerns of the nineteenth century, the book offers an interpretation of Kierkegaard that shows his relevance to philosophers and political theorists in the twenty-first century.

Animals regularly populate philosophical texts as a foil to illustrate what it means to be human. How should we understand this human-animal divide? Not only does it inform us of who we are, it also tells us how we should relate to the larger non-human world. The Speaking Animal interrogates the human-animal divide by looking at our linguistic differences how the speaking human subject is constructed through its opposition to the dumb animal. Alison Suen begins with an analysis of the role of language in animal ethics, with an eye toward the voice/voiceless opposition that is at work in animal advocacy. After offering a critical analysis of the ethical and political significance of speaking for animals, the book takes on a more constructive turn, going against the usual interpretation of language as a capacity that allows us to reason. Instead, it argues that our language capacity is also a relational capacity. Language is that which enables us to develop kinship with others including animal others.

This book examines how ideas about bodies, homes, and nature were deployed to serve three interrelated imperatives: the healthy population, the nation, and empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through an analysis of archive material it explores how the role of women in 'progressive' reform was a form of governmentality.

This is a major collection of essays examining the legacy of Friedrich Kittler in the turn towards Media Philosophy.

This is a major collection of essays examining the legacy of Friedrich Kittler in the turn towards Media Philosophy.

Offers a vital, unique and agenda-setting perspective for the field of social epistemology - the philosophical basis for prescribing the social means and ends for pursuing knowledge.

Oxi (Gr. Determiner, lit. ';No', fig. ';Resistance', pronounced ';ochi') retells Sophocles' Antigone through the contemporary Greek crisis and modern European philosophy. A collaboration between the renowned British auteur Ken McMullen and the literary theorist Martin McQuillan, the film draws upon and responds to the importance of the Antigone of modern thought (Hegel, Arendt, Lacan, Derrida, Butler), while coming up close to the politics of the street and the malign effects of the austerity experiment in Greece today. The screenplay weaves together a range of idioms, including performance, fiction, documentary, interview and literary collage. The result is an intensely moving reflection on the tragedy of austerity today, with contributions from Helene Cixous, Etienne Balibar and Antonio Negri, as well as several significant figures in Greek cultural life. The volume includes full transcripts of the interviews with Cixous, Balibar and Negri, and a previously unpublished interview with Jacques Derrida on the question of Oedipus, as well as critical commentary from the filmmakers.

Offers a vital, unique and agenda-setting perspective for the field of social epistemology - the philosophical basis for prescribing the social means and ends for pursuing knowledge.

A multidisciplinary collection which brings together cutting edge research about the cultural politics of space.

A multidisciplinary collection which brings together cutting edge research about the cultural politics of space.

Gilbert Simondon: Information, Technology and Media is a comprehensive introduction to the work of the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. In particular it examines Simondons original informational ontology, as developed from a synthesis of Cybernetics, thermodynamics and French epistemology, The book goes on to delineate the role this ontology plays in developing an original account of individuation in the physical, biological and psycho-social regimes. This is done, in part, through reading Simondon with and against other figures in these fields such as Merleau-Ponty and Stuart Kauffman.Additionally, Mills explores Simondons contribution to epistemology and invention, including an analysis of his important theories of the image-cycle and transindividuality. He also examines Simondons influence on several contemporary thinkers, including Bernard Stiegler and Bruno Latour, before exploring the relevance of Simondons work for theorising contemporary media technology.

This book brings together political and economic experts to make the case for the progressive power of innovation and the digital economy in enabling societies to cope with new challenges.

Bringing together new theory and critical perspectives on a broad range of topics in animal ethics, this book examines the implications of recent developments in the various fields that bear upon animal ethics. Showcasing a new generation of thinkers, it exposes some important shortcomings in existing animal rights theory.

Bringing together new theory and critical perspectives on a broad range of topics in animal ethics, this book examines the implications of recent developments in the various fields that bear upon animal ethics. Showcasing a new generation of thinkers, it exposes some important shortcomings in existing animal rights theory.

Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent offers an insight into modern European protest movements, focusing on the strategies, activities, and developments associated with the current wave of public dissent.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the problem of realism, the idea that the world exists in the way it does independently of the mind, within contemporary Continental philosophy. Many, if not most, of those writing on the topic demonstrates attitudes that range from mild skepticism to outright hostility. Richard Sebold argues that the problem with this is that realism is correct and that the question should then become: what happens to Continental philosophy if it is committed to the denial of a true doctrine?Sebold outlines the reasons why realism is superior to anti-realism and shows how Continental philosophical arguments against realism fail. Focusing on the work of four important philosophers, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Husserl, all of who have had a profound influence on more recent thinkers, he provides alternative ways of interpreting their apparently anti-realist sentiments and demonstrates that the insights of these Continental philosophers are nevertheless valuable, despite their problematic metaphysical beliefs.

Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent offers an insight into modern European protest movements, focusing on the strategies, activities, and developments associated with the current wave of public dissent.

This carefully curated collection addresses the intertwined political, legal, cultural, and normative dimensions of the irregularization of migration.

This carefully curated collection addresses the intertwined political, legal, cultural, and normative dimensions of the irregularization of migration.

Explores how UK politicians and the press mobilise support for 'austerity' through appealing to socially conservative conceptions of work and community. It examines the techniques of anti-austerity social movements in challenging the prevailing mood of guilt, nostalgia and resentment and how these may offer radical alternatives for social change.

In order to gain access to the EU, nations must be seen to implement formal instruments that protect the rights of minorities. This book examines the ways in which these tools have worked in a number of post-communist states, and explores the interaction of domestic and international structures that determine the application of these policies.Using empirical examples and comparative cases, the text explores three levels of policy-making: within sub-state and national politics, and within international agreements, laws and policy blueprints. This enables the authors to establish how domestic policymakers negotiate various structural factors in order to interpret rights norms and implement them long enough to gain EU accession. Showing that it is necessary to focus upon the states of post-communist Europe as autonomous actors, and not as mere recipients of directives and initiatives from ';the West', the book shows how underlying structural conditions allow domestic policy actors to talk the talk of rights protection without walking the walk of implementing minority rights legislation on their territories.