Three theorists engage in a dialogue on central questions of contemporary philosophy and politics. Their essays range from the Hegelian legacy in contemporary critical theory debate, to the merits of post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis for a critical social theory.

A debate on the politics of theory is being conducted within literary studies. What is meant by politics? What is meant by theory? This book brings together not only outstanding questioners, but outstanding questions.

Develops the theory of gender by examining the workings of power at the most "material" dimensions of sex and sexuality. This work offers a reformulation of the materiality of bodies, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the "matter" of bodies, sex, and gender. It argues that power operates to constrain "sex" from the start.

Written after September 11, 2001, in response to the conditions of heightened vulnerability and aggression that have prevailed since then, Judith Butler critiques the use of violence and argues for a response in which violence might be minimized, and interdependency becomes acknowledged as the basis for global political community.

Drawing upon Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault and Althusser, this work offers a theory of subject formation that illuminates as ambivalent the psychic effects of social power.

Antigone, the insurgent from Sophocles's Oedipus, has long been a feminist icon of defiance. This book redefines Antigone's legacy, recovering her significance and liberating it for a progressive feminism and sexual politics. It reconceptualizes the incest taboo in relation to kinship - and open up the concept of kinship to cultural change.

The author argues contemporary culture is in an age of epidemic ; AIDS has provoked discussion of the disease but also seen a growth in sites of erotic danger. She traces the effects of epidemic on the intensification and augmentation of regulatory mechanisms for the control of sexuality.

Addresses speech as a conduct which has become subject to political debate and regulation. The text invesigates hate speech regulation, anti-pornography arguments and controversies about gay self-declaration in the military.

Addresses speech as a conduct which has become subject to political debate and regulation. The text invesigates hate speech regulation, anti-pornography arguments and controversies about gay self-declaration in the military.

This work charts the trajectory of desire and its genesis from Hegel's formulation in Phenomenology of Spirit through its appropriation by Kojeve, Hyppolite, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze and Foucault. The text provides an account of post-Hegelian tradition that has predominated in modern France.