Description

Mark Poster (1941-2012) was professor emeritus in History and Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. First hired in 1969, Poster played a central role in UCI's emergence as a leading center for work in Critical Theory. He helped launch the Critical Theory Institute, first as an informal reading group and then as a formal research center in 1987. He also served as director in its early years. In 2002 he became the founding chair of UCI's Department of Film and Media Studies.

The collection includes Mark Poster's research files, notes, and email correspondence related to his books and other publications, lectures, as well as his work with the Critical Theory Institute.

Mark Poster selected and transferred these files from his hard drive for the Critical Theory Archive at the UC Irvine Libraries. UC Irvine Libraries staff migrated most files to pdf/A format for long-term access. Routine records, such as receipts, and damaged files were not retained.

The collection is partially open to research. In order to access the "Administrative Records for the Critical Theory Institute" and selected "Research Files," researchers must apply for access and agree to follow the Rules of Use for the Virtual Reading Room. Access may be granted in less than 5 business days.

Bibliography of works

• The Utopian Thought of Restif de la Bretonne, New York University Press, 1971.
• (Editor) Harmonian Man: Selected Writings of Charles Fourier, Anchor, 1971.
• Existential Marxism in Postwar France: From Sartre to Althusser, Princeton University Press, 1975.
• (Translator) Jean Baudrillard, The Mirror of Production, Telos Press, 1975.
• Critical Theory of the Family, Seabury (New York, NY), 1978.
• Sartre's Marxism, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1982.
• Foucault, Marxism, and History: Mode of Production Versus Mode of Information, Blackwell (New York, NY), 1984.
• (Editor) Jean Baudrillard, Selected Writings, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1988, revised 2nd edition, Polity (Cambridge, England), 2001.
• Critical Theory of Poststructuralism, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1989.
• The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Social Context, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1990.
• (Editor with Rob Kling and Spencer Olin) Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County Since World War II, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1991.
• (Editor) Politics, Theory, and Contemporary Culture, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1993.
• The Second Media Age, Polity Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.
• Cultural History and Postmodernity: Disciplinary Readings and Challenges, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1997.
• What's the Matter with the Internet?, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2001.
• Information Subject, Routledge, 2001.
• Information Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of Digital Machines, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2006.

The Mark Poster digital files are part of the Mark Poster papers at the UC Irvine Libraries Critical Theory Archive.