Rosalind Coward

Looks at how advertising takes advantage of female psychology and discusses the fitness boom, fashion, current beauty standards, family photographs, and the relationship between men and women.

How They are Sought, Bought, and Packaged

Female Desires

John Ellis

First published in 1977, this book presents a comprehensive and lucid guide through the labyrinths of semiology and structuralism — perhaps the most significant systems of study to have been developed in the twentieth century. The authors describe the early presuppositions of structuralism and semiology which claim to be a materialist theory of language based on Saussure’s notion of the sign. They show how these presuppositions have been challenged by work following Althusser’s development of the Marxist theory of ideology, and by Lacan’s re-reading of Freud. The book explains how the encounter of two disciplines — psychoanalysis and Marxism — on the ground of their common problem —language — has produced a new understanding of society and its subjects. It produces a critical re-examination of the traditional Marxist theory of ideology, together with the concepts of sign and identity of the subject.

Developments in Semiology and the Theory of the Subject

Language and Materialism

First published in 1983, Patriarchal Precedents is an excavation of the term patriarchy. Rosalind Coward shoes how the debates about patriarchy and matriarchy were crucial to social theories in the nineteenth century, discussing how the resolution of these debates resulted in our present ways of (mis)understanding the family, sexual relations and sexual characteristics. Rosalind Coward argues that the violent debates around patriarchy tell a salutary tale about how the term presupposed as much as it set out to explain. She demonstrates how it was used in Marxism and psychoanalysis in ways which blocked any radical thinking about sexual relations, and how the arguments against the term patriarchy within anthropology still have to be taken seriously. She argues that in order to advance our understanding of how power is exercised in sexual relations, of the place which sexual relations have within society and the construction of sexual characteristics, a series of presuppositions about sexual relations must now be cleared away. This book will be of interest to students of gender studies, women's studies, sexuality, men' s studies, sociology and anthropology.

Sexuality and Social Relations

Patriarchal Precedents

Female Desire

First published in 1977, this book presents a comprehensive and lucid guide through the labyrinths of semiology and structuralism -- perhaps the most significant systems of study to have been developed in the twentieth century. The authors describe the early presuppositions of structuralism and semiology which claim to be a materialist theory of language based on Saussure's notion of the sign. They show how these presuppositions have been challenged by work following Althusser's development of the Marxist theory of ideology, and by Lacan's re-reading of Freud. The book explains how the encounter of two disciplines -- psychoanalysis and Marxism -- on the ground of their common problem --language -- has produced a new understanding of society and its subjects. It produces a critical re-examination of the traditional Marxist theory of ideology, together with the concepts of sign and identity of the subject.

What is this Thing Between Us

Supplemented by many never before published photographs, offers a personal look at the woman known for her humanitarian inspiration to the world.

The Portrait

Diana

This book argues that the personal voice, which is often disparaged in journalism teaching, is and always has been a prevalent form of journalism. Paradoxically, the aim of 'objective' reporters is often to be known for a distinctive 'voice'. This personal voice is becoming increasingly visible in the context of 'the confessional society'.

Rosalind Coward

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