| Cultural Studies | |||
| Book Title | Author | Year | Description |
| The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture | Theodor W. Adorno | 1981 | a collection of essays that offers a influential critique of mass culture and its effects on society. |
| The Uses of Literacy | Richard Hoggart | 1957 | an influential analysis of the role of culture and communication in shaping society and personal identity. |
| Orientalism | Edward Said | 1978 | an influential critique of the way that Western cultures have represented and appropriated the cultures of the East. |
| The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life | Erving Goffman | 1959 | an influential analysis of the role of social performance and impression management in shaping personal identity and social interactions. |
| The Production of Space | Henri Lefebvre | 1974 | an influential analysis of the way that space and spatial relationships shape society and culture. |
| Culture and Imperialism | Edward Said | 1993 | an influential critique of the way that imperialism has shaped and been shaped by culture. |
| The Condition of Postmodernity | David Harvey | 1989 | an influential analysis of the nature of postmodernity and its impact on society and culture. |
| The Visual Culture Reader | edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff | 1998 | a collection of essays that explores the role of visual media and representation in shaping culture and identity. |
| The Death and Life of Great American Cities | Jane Jacobs | 1961 | an influential critique of urban planning and the impact of the built environment on culture and community. |
| The Location of Culture | Homi K. Bhabha | 1994 | an influential analysis of the role of culture in shaping identity and power relations. |
| Media Studies | |||
| Book Title | Author | Year | Description |
| The Media Effect: How the News Influences Politics and Government | David D. Perlmutter | 2010 | a comprehensive analysis of the role of the media in shaping political discourse and decision-making. |
| The Cultivation Theory: How the Media Affects Our Perception of Reality | George Gerbner and Larry Gross | 1976 | an influential theory of the way that media consumption shapes individuals’ perceptions of the world around them. |
| Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business | Neil Postman | 1985 | an influential critique of the impact of entertainment values on public discourse and the erosion of serious intellectual content. |
| The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas | Robert W. McChesney | 2008 | a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between media and power, and the ways in which media industries are shaped by economic and political forces. |
| The Media Monopoly | Ben H. Bagdikian | 1983 | an influential critique of the concentration of media ownership and the impact on the diversity of viewpoints and information available to the public. |
| Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media | Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky | 1988 | an influential analysis of the way that media serve as a propaganda system for the powerful and the ways in which media content is shaped by corporate and political interests. |
| The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion, Our Social Skin | Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann | 1984 | an influential theory of the way that individuals’ perceptions of social norms and expectations shape their willingness to express their opinions publicly. |
| The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age | Astra Taylor | 2014 | an influential critique of the concentration of power in the tech industry and the impact on culture and democracy. |
| Media, Culture, and Society: An Introduction | David Gauntlett | 2011 | a comprehensive introduction to media studies, covering a wide range of topics including media representation, media effects, and the political economy of media. |
| The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society | David Garland | 2001 | an influential analysis of the role of media and other cultural practices in shaping society’s understanding of crime and justice. |
| Film Theory | |||
| Book Title | Author | Year | Description |
| Film Art: An Introduction | David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson | 1979 | a classic introduction to film theory and analysis, covering a wide range of topics and offering a detailed analysis of the formal elements of film. |
| Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema | Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark | 1993 | an influential analysis of the representation of masculinities in Hollywood cinema and the cultural significance of these representations. |
| The Cinematic Apparatus | Jean-Louis Baudry | 1970 | an influential theory of the way that cinema shapes our perception of reality and the ideological implications of this process. |
| The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception | Michel Foucault | 1963 | an influential analysis of the way that film and other visual media have shaped our understanding of the body and medicine. |
| The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation | Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston | 1981 | a classic work on the history and techniques of animation, offering a detailed analysis of the art and craft of Disney animation in particular. |
| The Film Theory Reader: Debates and Arguments | edited by Marc Furstenau | 2010 | a collection of classic and contemporary essays on film theory, covering a wide range of topics and providing a comprehensive overview of the field. |
| The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory | Patricia Pisters | 2003 | an influential analysis of the way that film and other visual media shape our understanding of reality and the nature of experience. |
| The Audiovisual Essay: Practice and Theory of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies | edited by Catherine Grant | 2016 | a collection of essays that explore the potential of the videographic essay as a form of film and media criticism and analysis. |
| Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema | Christian Metz | 1974 | a classic work of film theory that offers a comprehensive analysis of the way that cinema communicates meaning through its formal elements. |
| Film, Form, and Culture | Robert Phillip Kolker | 2006 | a comprehensive introduction to film theory and analysis, covering a wide range of topics and offering a detailed analysis of the formal elements of film. |
| Literary Criticism | |||
| Book Title | Author | Year | Description |
| Literary Theory: An Introduction | Terry Eagleton | 1983 | a classic introduction to literary theory, covering a wide range of approaches and offering a detailed analysis of the key concepts and ideas of each. |
| The Death of the Author | Roland Barthes | 1967 | an influential critique of the concept of the author and the role of the reader in the interpretation of texts. |
| Structuralism and Semiotics | Terence Hawkes | 1977 | a classic introduction to structuralism and semiotics, covering the key ideas and concepts of these approaches and their application to literature and other cultural forms. |
| The Practice of Everyday Life | Michel de Certeau | 1980 | an influential analysis of the way that individuals appropriate and resist cultural forms and practices in their everyday lives. |
| How to Read Literature Like a Professor | Thomas C. Foster | 2003 | an accessible introduction to literary analysis, covering a wide range of topics and offering practical tips for interpreting and understanding literature. |
| The Psychoanalytic Theory of Greek Tragedy | C. Fred Alford | 1989 | an influential analysis of the way that psychoanalytic theory can be used to interpret classical literature and the psychological themes it explores. |
| The Ideology of the Aesthetic | Terry Eagleton | 1990 | an influential critique of the idea of the aesthetic and the ways in which it has been used to obscure political and social issues. |
| Ideology | |||
| Book Title | Author | Year | Description |
| Ideology: A Very Short Introduction | Michael Freeden | 2011 | a concise introduction to the concept of ideology, covering its history, key ideas, and its role in shaping political thought and action. |
| The Ideology of the Aesthetic | Terry Eagleton | 1990 | an influential critique of the idea of the aesthetic and the ways in which it has been used to obscure political and social issues. |
| Ideology and Utopia | Karl Mannheim | 1936 | a classic work of ideology theory that explores the ways in which ideas and beliefs shape social and political action. |
| Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses | Louis Althusser | 1970 | an influential theory of the way that ideology shapes social and political structures and the ways in which individuals are subject to it. |
| The Ideology of the Text | Jonathan Culpeper | 2000 | an influential analysis of the way that language and text can be used to express and obscure ideology. |
| The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution | Bernard Bailyn | 1967 | an influential analysis of the way that ideology shaped the American Revolution and the formation of the United States. |
| The Ideological Animal: The Nature of Beliefs and the Beliefs in Nature | David L. Hull | 1998 | an influential analysis of the relationship between ideology and scientific belief, and the ways in which ideology shapes scientific understanding. |