Abstract

Fables of Desire d examines a range of central texts from a broad European literary and theoretical tradition, reinterpreting them in the light of radical cultural theories. Geyer-Ryan brings the critical potential of feminism, psychoanalysis and post-structuralism into dialogue with the legacy of the Frankfurt School, with its distinctive blend of philosophy, politics and hermeneutics. Drawing on the theory of reading developed by Walter Benjamin, Fables of Desire d is directed against the politics of forgetting. The process of reading must constantly strive to recover the voices which have been silenced. It must confront and contest the canonized forms of interpretation through which conservative cultural institutions have sought to erase the subversive configurations of meaning embedded in the text. A number of closely related themes run throughout the volume: identity, sexual difference, gender politics, textuality, violence, power and voice. These are the crucial grounds upon which the struggle between unification and polyphony, violence and desire, is played out.