Author: Anthony Giddens
Translator: Eun-kyong Bae, Jeong-mi Hwang
Publisher: Sae-mool-gyol
Hardcover | 312 pages | 223*152mm
| Important! Please read before you order! |
| >>>This book is written in Korean only. |
About This Book
In this excellent overview of the great social experiment known as modern
"relationships," Giddens, a leading theorist of political sociology, turns his
attention to the world of the personal lives. It is Giddens' thesis that women
have been the revolutionaries in a sea change that has occurred within the
nature and structure of the family. As women emanicipated themselves from
traditional structures of family, they were forced to be pioneers in
understanding themselves and their relationships. Using Foucault and Freud as a
starting point, Giddens explores the differences between the sexes in the light
of modernity, dialectically comparing them with later feminist writers. The
contrast allows Giddens to synthesize views into something compatible with his
larger view of society in microcosm. Giddens introduces the idea of "pure
relationship", a relationship freely entered into for mutual benefit for as long
as it is beneficial as a contrast with earlier notions of marriage as role and
obligation. He also hypothesizes the eventual replacement of romantic love, as
defined by the view (or illusion) that there is a "special someone", with what
he calls "confluent love" locating the specialness in the relationship itself.
Giddens feels this change is part of a radical "democratization" of society
going on at its most micro levels.
Some of this will be "old news" for those familiar with feminist literature, but
for most people it will be an integrative look at what most of of have been
experiencing without understanding. It may be a little too literate or scholarly
for the mass market, but most people will find it interesting, if occasionally
difficult. (One does not need to understand Foucault to get anything out of the
book, however that particular chapter might be wasted.) There are only two
shortcomings: [1] A general tendency to characterize men as the cultural
laggards (though probably deservedly) despite a good section on the men's
movement. I believe he could have explored more of the contradictions of men's
current roles, as done by the more recent book by Susan Faludi- "Stiffed", and
[2] a failure to explore what, if any, connection this micro "democratization"
has with the increasingly hierarchial and globalized society at large. All in
all, though, an excellent work. --Robert Manis
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