The second edition of this highly successful reader builds upon and expands the range of work recorded in the original, in order to reflect the growing diversity of the field of critical and cultural theory. The editors have been keen to maintain the rigor of the first edition by including a comprehensive set of original extracts from the works of critical and cultural theorists in the poststructuralist and postmodern traditions. The reader is divided into six sections: Semiology, Ideology, Subjectivity, Difference, Gender and Race, and Postmodernism, and is designed to take the student of critical and cultural theory through the tradition of thought from Saussure's early writings on language to contemporary commentary, such as that of Baudrillard and Zizek, on world events like September 11. With the needs of students in mind, the reader also comes with clear and precise introductions to each of the sections, as well as invaluable summaries of each of the extracts published.