Humanism, in all its diversity and complexity, may facilitate the renewal of progressive theory through the championing of human subjectivity, agency and freedom. Across four extended essays, David Alderson, Kevin Anderson, Barbara Epstein and Robert Spencer engage critically with the Marxist tradition, recent developments in poststructuralism, postcolonialism and queer theory.
Incorporating an overview of the historical context that resulted in socialist humanism’s eclipse in the 1950s and '60s, and a strident critique of anti-humanism, For Humanism offers a coherent and compelling argument for the rehabilitation of a much maligned tradition.
David Alderson is Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature at the University of Manchester. He has written widely about the relations between gender, sexuality and neoliberalism. He is co-editor of For Humanism: Explorations in Theory and Politics (Pluto, 2017) and author of Sex, Needs, and Queer Culture: From Liberation to the Postgay (Zed Books, 2016).
Robert Spencer is Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures at the University of Manchester. He writes and teaches in the areas of modernism, cultural theory and postcolonial writing. He is co-editor of For Humanism (Pluto, 2017).
Series Preface
Introduction: Humanism’s Other Story - Timothy Brennan
1. The Rise, Decline and Possible Revival of Socialist Humanism - Barbara Epstein
2. Marxist Humanism after Structuralism and Post-structuralism: The Case for Renewal - Kevin Anderson
3. Postcolonialism is a Humanism - Robert Spencer
4. Queer Theory, Solidarity and Bodies Political - David Alderson
Conclusion - David Alderson and Robert Spencer
Index
eBook ISBN: 9781786800220
240 pages
135mm x 215mm