Mapping the subject

About this book

"With no precise boundaries, always on the move and too complex to be defined by space and time, is it possible to map the human subject? This book attempts to do just this, exploring the places of the subject in contemporary culture. The editors approach this subject from four main aspects-its construction, sexuality, limits and politics-using a wide ranging review of literature on subjectivity across the social and human sciences. The first part of the book establishes the idea that the subject is constructed through detailed histories of the subject. The second part shows that sexuality cannot be assumed to be natural through the contributors' research on the place of sexuality in subjectivity and subjectivity in sexuality. The essays in the third part take issue with the idea of a singular, self-contained identity. Power relations and the effects of power are consistent themes throughout the book and the final section deals explicitly with relations of power, whether organized around gender, race, class or other kinds of difference." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0648/94023747-d.html.