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Publics and Counterpublics

Michael Warner

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Paperback

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English
Zone Books
21 June 2005
Series: Zone Books
An investigation of how the idea of a public as a central fiction of modern life informs our literature, politics, and culture.

Most of the people around us belong to our world not directly, as kin or comrades, but as strangers. How do we recognize them as members of our world? We are related to them as transient participants in common publics. Indeed, most of us would find it nearly impossible to imagine a social world without publics. In the eight essays in this book, Michael Warner addresses the question: What is a public? According to Warner, the idea of a public is one of the central fictions of modern life. Publics have powerful implications for how our social world takes shape, and much of modern life involves struggles over the nature of publics and their interrelations. The idea of a public contains ambiguities, even contradictions. As it is extended to new contexts, politics, and media, its meaning changes in ways that can be difficult to uncover. Combining historical analysis, theoretical reflection, and extensive case studies, Warner shows how the idea of a public can reframe our understanding of contemporary literary works and politics and of our social world in general. In particular, he applies the idea of a public to the junction of two intellectual traditions: public-sphere theory and queer theory.
By:  
Imprint:   Zone Books
Country of Publication:   United States
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   522g
ISBN:   9781890951290
ISBN 10:   1890951293
Series:   Zone Books
Pages:   336
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 18
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Michael Warner is Professor of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life and The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America.

Reviews for Publics and Counterpublics

With Michael Warner's Publics and Counterpublics, that growing discourse on what constitutes a public (and counterpublic) takes a giant step forward in a provocative collection of eight thematically linked essays that draw upon the author's wide-ranging and cross-disciplinary knowledge. - Chuck Berg, Magill's Literary Annual


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