Elizabeth Wilson 
The Contradictions of Culture 
Cities, Culture, Women

In this book, one of the most accomplished and thoughtful cultural commentators of the day, considers the contradictory nature of cultural relations. Elizabeth Wilson explores these themes through an examination of fashion, feminism, consumer culture, representation and postmodernism. Debates within feminism on the nature and effects of pornography are used to illustrate a particular kind of cultural contradiction. Wilson recognizes that postmodernism permitted the reappropriation of subjects that were not previously considered worthy of attention, or opposed to the idea of emancipation, chief among these was fashion. She shows that the association of an interest in this culturally significant subject with a revisionist project raises doubts about the coherence of postmodernism itself.

Table of Content

PART ONE

Introduction

Incoherent Feminism

The 1990s

The Unbearable Lightness of Diana

Feminist Fundamentalism

These New Components of the Spectacle

Fashion and Postmodernism

PART TWO

The Sphinx in the City Reconsidered

The Invisible
Fl[ci]aneur
Afterward
The Invisible Fl[ci]aneur
Looking Backward
Urban Nostalgia
Writing the Romance of the Suburbs
A Review of Literature
Living Dolls
Bricolage City
Myths of Brighton
Dogs in Space
Notes on the Erotic City
Against Utopia
The Romance of Indeterminate Spaces

About the author

Elizabeth Wilson is a leading commentator on culture, the city and feminism in the UK. She is currently Professor of Social Science at the University of North London.