Preface

Abstract

The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory (YWCCT) is a companion to The Year’s Work in English Studies (YWES), and like that journal, it provides a narrative bibliography of books and articles published in the field. The origins of YWCCT lie in the introduction of a separate chapter devoted to literary theory in volume 62 of YWES in 1981. The growth of critical and cultural theory led to the appearance of YWCCT as a distinct entity thirteen years later. David Tucker’s five-year editorial term came to an end last year, so volume 25 of YWCCT is the first to be co-edited by Professor Emma Mason (University of Warwick); to provide a sense of continuity, Neil Badmington continues as the other co-editor until 2018. The following sections address work published in 2016—with some brief overlap into adjacent years where relevant—under the following headings: Affect Theory; Animal Studies; Black Critical and Cultural Theory; Digital Humanities; Disability Studies; Ecocriticism; Economic Criticism; Feminisms; Film Theory; Media; Modern European Philosophy; Performance, Theatre, and Drama; Poetics; Popular Culture; Postcolonial Theory; Psychoanalysis; Queer Theory; Religion and Representation; Science and Medicine; Theory on Theory; and Visual Culture. As the chapters show, debate within and across these groupings is lively and attests to a vibrant interdisciplinarity and ever-shifting foci. The editors continue to work to find ways of mapping the changing landscape of critical and cultural theory by incorporating new topics while not overlooking developments within more established debates.