Subversion

Subversion in literary and cultural theory is usually understood, broadly, as a matter of the reversal of established values, or the insertion of other values into them. The relationship between this mostly cultural or ideological subversion and the actual subversion of existing social relations is a hotly contested topic. Much literary and cultural theory which has developed from a critical standpoint, whether Marxist, feminist or otherwise, has become concerned with debating the extent of subversion's potential, presence or extent. As such, any debate on subversion normally takes place in close relation to a debate on its opposite: containment or recuperation.