Political Correctness: A Response from the Cultural Left - Softcover

Feldstein, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816624763 ISBN 13: 9780816624768

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1997

Synopsis

A hard-hitting assessment of the way the Right has used this divisive issue.

If our so-called culture war seems all on the side of the Right, there’s a reason. It’s all in their heads. From the beleaguered-some would say baffled-silence on the Left, this book at long last emerges with a devastating diagnosis of the “debate” over political correctness.

Written with refreshing clarity and wit, Political Correctness describes a cultural nonphenomenon brought into being by the desires of neoconservatives. Nostalgic for the simple moral logic of the Cold War, the conservative Right has created an evil empire within and conferred upon its enemies-from multiculturalists to postmodernists and poststructuralists-a McCarthyite agenda that demands action from the high-minded.

What clearly marks this as a projection, Richard Feldstein points out, is the moralism attributed to the forces of political correctness by their conservative critics. And where, in fact, do we find the obsessive fixation on judgment, morality, and correct and appropriate behavior that might make political correctness so reprehensible? It is, Feldstein argues, a central feature of right-wing thinking, projected onto those who reject such black-and-white, good-and-bad views as naive. Political Correctness defines this procedure in comparison with the process of psychological projection, in which consciousness transfers onto others what it cannot tolerate. In the case of cultural projection, Feldstein says, the transference is often intentional. In readings of key neoconservative texts, Feldstein shows how this approach got its initial boost with the ascension of Reagan and the Moral Majority, continued as the dominant form of Republicanism in the Bush-Quayle era, and persists during the Clinton administration.

Political Correctness is not just an essential tool to understanding the way the Right deploys this powerful weapon; it is a guide to resisting the cynical use of these tactics in our media-saturated society, one that acknowledges the complexity of life in our multicultural, postmodern world.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Feldstein is professor of English at Rhode Island College.

From the Back Cover

Written with refreshing clarity and wit, 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS' describes a cultural nonphenomenon brought into being by the desires of neoconservatives. Nostalgic for the simple moral logic of the Cold War, the conservative Right has created an evil empire within and conferred upon its enemies - from multiculturalists to postmodernists and poststructuralists - a McCarthyite agenda that demands action from the high-minded.

Reviews

Many critics of political correctness who consider themselves moderate or even mostly liberal would be surprised to learn from this book just how far to the right they are. Feldstein (English, Rhode Island Coll.) intends here to connect with a general audience while bringing "the weight of contemporary critical theory to bear." A sizable chunk of theory is hefted about, but any hopes the author has of reaching the mainstream are locked in the concrete of academic jargon. Those unable to get excited about signifiers and referents, recontextualization, and Lacan will quickly lose interest; despite the subtitle, people genuinely critical of PC will find no "response" here intended for their consideration. Feldstein assumes all such criticisms to be too absurd for argument. He lumps all PC critics into the same far-right conspiracy, one busy with a "jihad" of racist, sexist, homophobic propaganda For specialized academic collections.?Patrick Dunn, East Tennessee State Univ. Lib., Johnson City
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816624763
• ISBN 13: 9780816624768
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256