Gender, Culture, and Power: Toward a Feminist Postmodern Critical Theory - Hardcover

by Ben Agger (Author)

Agger develops a critical theory which confronts the challenges of feminism and postmodernism in order to address postmodernity adequately. Drawing on first-generation critical theory of Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse and second-generation critical theory of Habermas, Agger argues for the priority of critical theory over the antitotality perspectives of postmodernism and feminism. Although Frankfurt critical theory, postmodernism, and feminism are often viewed as divergent, Agger develops an argument for synthesis, outlining what he calls the logic of feminist postmodern critical theory. He then applies the logic to particular social, political, textual, and cultural problems. Building especially on the feminist critique of the domination of women's reproductive activities by a male standard of value, this new theoretical logic connects social problems heretofore seen as separable, especially those which derive from the intellectual agenda of multiculturalism.

Author Biography

BEN AGGER is Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Buffalo. He has authored ten books and specializes in social theory and neo-Marxism.