Sketches in the Theory of Culture is a remarkable work by all
measures. Written by Zygmunt Bauman when he was still a professor in
Poland, and originally intended for publication in 1968, it was
suppressed by the Polish government in the wave of repression following
the protests in March of that year. For decades, it was thought to be
lost. Astonishingly, it survived in the form of an uncorrected set of
proofs which was recently discovered, and is the basis of this
edition.
Now published in English for the first time, this book sheds new light
on Bauman's work prior to his emigration and illuminates the
intellectual climate of Poland in the late 1960s. Bauman's pursuit of a
semiotic theory of culture includes a discussion of processes of
individualization and the intensification of global ties, anticipating
themes that became central to his later work. Though this book stands as
a testament to a historical moment, it also transcends it. '[W]e live
in an age that seems, for the first time in human history, to
acknowledge cultural multiplicity as an innate and fixed feature of the
world, one which gives rise to new forms of identity that are at ease
with plurality, like a fish in water', writes Bauman - a statement that
is as true today as it was when he penned it in the 1960s.
Sketches in the Theory of Culture is a strikingly prescient reflection
on culture and society by one of the most influential social thinkers of
the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It will appeal to
students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities and to
the many readers of Bauman's work.
