Indifferent Boundaries: Spatial Concepts of Human Subjectivity - Hardcover

Kirby, Kathleen M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0898629039 ISBN 13: 9780898629033

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 1995

Synopsis

What does it mean to talk about subjectivity in the language of space, and what are the political implications of doing so? A provocative and illuminating work, Indifferent Boundaries explores the ways that concepts of subjectivity are vitally grounded in metaphors of and assumptions about space. Kathleen Kirby demonstrates how changes that have taken place in real and conceptual space from the Renaissance to the postmodern era have led to a critical rearticulation of the subject by feminist, psychoanalytic, and poststructuralist theorists, among others. Tracing changing ideas about the self--from the stable form of the Enlightenment individual to the postmodern sujet en procès--Kirby appraises both the liberatory possibilities and the everyday cultural implications of the contemporary "space of the subject." This tenacious and substantive investigation of the lexicon of space sheds much needed light in previously dark corners of the poststructuralist edifice, and is certain to appeal to a broad, interdisciplinary audience.

About this title

About the Author

Kathleen M. Kirby graduated from the Modern Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1992. She has taught English and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Syracuse University, and the University of New Hampshire. Her articles on space, politics and subjectivity have been published in New Orleans Review, American Imago, and boundary 2. She currently lives, writes, and works in New Hampshire.

Review

"Fascinating....This book is a `must read' for all cultural geographers within and beyond the discipline." (Ecumene 1995-12-17)

Edition details

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0898629039
• ISBN 13: 9780898629033
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 169