David Alderson & Robert Spencer 
For Humanism [EPUB ebook] 
Explorations in Theory and Politics

Today, anti-humanism is a dominant, even definitive, feature of contemporary theory. Setting out to challenge this tendency, editors David Alderson and Kevin Anderson argue that the political moment demands a reappraisal of the humanist tradition.



Humanism, in all its diversity and complexity, may facilitate the renewal of progressive theory through the championing of human subjectivity, agency and freedom. Across four extended essays, David Alderson, Kevin Anderson, Barbara Epstein and Robert Spencer engage critically with the Marxist tradition, recent developments in poststructuralism, postcolonialism and queer theory.



Incorporating an overview of the historical context that resulted in socialist humanism’s eclipse in the 1950s and ’60s, and a strident critique of anti-humanism, For Humanism offers a coherent and compelling argument for the rehabilitation of a much maligned tradition.

Table of Content

Series Preface
Introduction: Humanism’s Other Story – Timothy Brennan
1. The Rise, Decline and Possible Revival of Socialist Humanism – Barbara Epstein
2. Marxist Humanism after Structuralism and Post-structuralism: The Case for Renewal – Kevin Anderson
3. Postcolonialism is a Humanism – Robert Spencer
4. Queer Theory, Solidarity and Bodies Political – David Alderson
Conclusion – David Alderson and Robert Spencer
Index

About the author

Robert Spencer is Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures at the University of Manchester. He writes and teaches in the areas of modernism, cultural theory and postcolonial writing. He is co-editor of For Humanism (Pluto, 2017).