Arguing With the Phallus : Feminist, Queer and Postcolonial Theory: A Psychoanalytic Contribution

What can psychoanalysis offer contemporary arguments in the fields of feminism, queer theory and postcolonialism? Jan Campbell introduces and analyses the way that psychoanalysis has developed and made problematic models of subjectivity linked to issues of sexuality, ethnicity, gender and history.

Via discussions of such influential and diverse figures as Lacan, Irigaray, Kristeva, Dollimore, Bhabha, Morrison and Walker, Campbell uses psychoanalysis as a mediatory tool in a range of debates across the human sciences, whilst also arguing for a transformation of psychoanalytic theory itself. Alert to the issues at stake in either a wholesale acceptance of rejection of psychoanalysis, Campbell offers the possibility of a re-negotiated interpretation of the symbolic system as a necessary and valuable intervention in cultural theory.

“A subtle, well-informed and lucid bringing-together of strands of psychoanalysis that have been kept apart for too long.” —Andrew Samuels, University of Essex

“Jan Campbell has made a bold intervention in a rich and complex area of debate. Arguing with the Phallus is argumentative in the best sense, scrupulous in its dealings with the work of other theorists while making its own powerful case.” —Pete Nicholls, University of Sussex

“A remarkable achievement, as much for its engagement with an astonishing range of debates within and beyond psychoanalysis, as for its impassioned commitment to feminist, queer and postcolonial politics.” —Steve Pile, senior lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University