Gylphi

This new and groundbreaking book series examines the trans-disciplinary area of transgression. Transgression, in this context, means the breaking of social, moral, and legal boundaries. This series focuses primarily on culture, but its scope goes beyond this. Sometimes transgression appears to be controversial, and yet transgression is frequently today absorbed by the mainstream. Many societies, both in the East and West, appear to be obsessed with this form of behaviour, with activities such as crime and addiction, dominating the news media. Whether this is actually led by a media seeking sensationalist stories to pump up sales, or is part of a deeper, darker, psychological need is an important question.

In cultural theory, some highly influential thinkers, such as Nietzsche, Foucault, and Bataille, among others, are synonymous with transgression, and have been used by scholars to analyse transgression. Again, this has to lead to transgression being absorbed within mainstream culture. Degree programmes at mainstream universities include many courses in this area. The boundaries are blurring concerning what it means to 'transgress'. Ironically, perhaps, 'normality' is now transgression. Recent cultural theorists, such as Terry Eagleton and Slavoj Žižek, have examined transgression and 'evil' in contemporary culture. While 'evil' has relevance here, to call anything 'evil' lends it a power, and gives it a status beyond its reality. So, studying transgression actually diffuses some of its so-called power, hence a series such as this has both a scholarly and social and political value. Simply put, when boundaries are crossed by culture, frequently this reinforces the ideological norm. This series, therefore, fulfils a deep need in academic discourse, and beyond. From serial killers in real life, or in literature or television, such as American Psycho and the US television show Dexter, to paedophiles in the media and popular culture, and other forms of behaviour deemed to be anathema, this area both fascinates, and repulses societies, audiences, and individuals.

With a focus, primarily on culture, there is a crossover with the social sciences, particularly anthropology, sociology, history and social psychology. This series, therefore, welcomes work across the humanities, arts, and social sciences. 'Transgressive Culture' offers readers and writers the opportunity to explore these subjects in depth.

Forthcoming Titles

Media Technologies, Japan, and Transgression, Adam Stapleton (University of Western Sydney)

Hedonism and Transgression in British Cinema since 1960, Felix Thompson (University of Derby)

Series Editor Biography

The editor, Jason Lee, is a world-authority on transgression, with work translated into six languages. He is Head of Film and Media with Creative and Professional Writing, and Assistant Head of Humanities/Assistant Dean, at the University of Derby. Among other work, he is the author of Pervasive Perversions: Child Sexual Abuse in Media/Culture (London: Free Association Books, 2005). According to James Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, at the University of Southern California, the leading international expert in this field during the 1980s and 1990s, Jason Lee's work is 'the finest to appear on the subject'. Cambria Press published Lee's Celebrity, Paedophilia and Ideology in American Culture in 2009, and are publishing an edited collection by him on addiction and obsession in 2010. He is editor of the international journal Transgressive Culture.