The Material Family
Julie P. Torrant
The Material Family is a bold new reading of
the family, focusing on “new” or “post-nuclear,” “flexible” family forms
such as gay family, divorce-extended family, and transnational family.
Reading across a range of texts from high theory to literature and
popular films, the book crosses disciplinary boundaries to offer a
highly innovative and dynamic approach to changes in gender and other
family relations. Unlike most books in the fields of cultural and family
studies, The Material Family provides an historical and
materialist argument connecting the changes within family to underlying
shifts in material, labor relations in global capitalism. The
“post-nuclear” family is not only an affective space, Torrant argues,
but one whose affects are themselves fundamentally shaped by class.
The Material Family is a must-read for anyone who wants to venture
beyond the surfaces of family life to the deeper-lying relations that
have made the family and its new forms among the most important spaces
of social life. Its readers will include not only students and
researchers in the fields of education, cultural theory and cultural
studies, women’s studies, sociology, and anthropology, but also general
readers interested in understanding contemporary families and their
struggles.
Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education Volume 74