An accessible introduction to the expanding field of cultural studies, provides a range of critical perspectives on contemporary cultural forms, practices, and identities. In an era of posts', terms such as postmodernism, postcolonialism, post-Enlightenment, post-feminism, post-disciplinary, and even post-history pervade much of the conceptual terrain for cultural research. At the same time, more familiar analytical categories, such as representation, experience, reality, and power, have been neglected. This book agrees with the important postmodern focus on contingency, temporality, and situational definitions of the world. Without the neutral ground of modernism beneath our feet, we face culturally specific, contingent questions of value. Extending beyond the postmodern debate to reinstate the critical dimension in cultural analysis, this anthology covers a wide range of contemporary subjects, such as the body, AIDS, race,the environment, and virtual reality.