 |
Short Studies, published by the Simpson Center and distributed by the University of Washington Press, is a series of short books showcasing work in the humanities.
To purchase any of these volumes contact the University of Washington Press.
|
|
|
|
|
Short Studies
 |
A Manifesto for Literary Studies
by Marjorie Garber (English, Harvard University)
University of Washington Press, November 2003
“A Manifesto for Literary Studies,” writes Marjorie Garber, “is an attempt to remind us of the specificity of what it means to ask literary questions, and the pleasure of thinking through and with literature.” Featuring two essays, “Human Nature” and “Historical Correctness,” which stem from Garber’s Winter 2002 Katz Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Washington, the book explores the topic of human nature, a subject once discussed primarily among poets, novelists and political philosophers, but now largely the property of scientists. Details |
 |
Semiotic Flesh: Information and the Human Body
edited by Robert Mitchell (English, Duke University) and Phillip Thurtle (Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University)
University of Washington Press, 2002
Semiotic Flesh features essays by scholars in science studies, communications, and literature—Richard Doyle (Pennsylvania State University), Timothy Lenoir (Stanford University), and N. Katherine Hayles (University of California, Los Angeles)—with responses from Steven Shaviro (English, UW), Peter Oppenheimer (Human Interface Technology Lab, UW) and Kathleen Woodward (English, UW and Director, Simpson Center, UW). Edited by the organizers of the 2000-2001 Simpson Center-sponsored lecture series entitled “Information and the Human Body,” the essays explore the distinction between information (abstract concepts of signs and syntax) and bodies (corporeal concepts involving cells and organs) and the sites where flesh and information productively intermingle. Details |
 |
The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s Lost Highway
by Slavoj Zizek (Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana)
University of Washington Press, 2000
Slavoj Zizek’s essay examines the enigma of postmodernity as presented through the lens of David Lynch and Zizek’s own brand of Lacanaian analysis. Zizek’s method of reading popular culture with wit and theoretical, sophistication amounts to an art in itself—an art of the intellect, of rendering complex psychoanalytic, theoretical and critical ideas clear through examples from popular idiom and experience. Arguing that in David Lynch’s film Lost Highway, the fantasmatic support of reality functions as defense against the Real, Zizek offers a clear and persuasive reading of an enigmatic and powerful film. Details |
|
|
|
Undergraduate Courses