Peggy Kamuf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282302
- eISBN:
- 9780823284801
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282302.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book pursues Derrida’s assertion, in The Death Penalty, Volume I, that “the modern history of the institution named literature in Europe over the last three or four centuries is contemporary ...
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This book pursues Derrida’s assertion, in The Death Penalty, Volume I, that “the modern history of the institution named literature in Europe over the last three or four centuries is contemporary with and indissociable from a contestation of the death penalty.” The main question this book poses is: How does literature contest the death penalty today, particularly in the United States where it remains the last of its kind, a Christian-inspired death penalty in what professes to be a democracy? What resources do fiction, narrative, and poetic language supply in the age of the remains of the death penalty? These are among the questions that guide the analyses of four literary works, each a depiction or an account of an execution, in the search for deconstructive leverage on the concepts that prop up capital punishment. Different pertinent features are isolated in these texts: the “mysteries” of literary or poetic witness; the publicness of punishment in an era of secrecy around the death penalty; the undecidable difference between death by capital punishment and by suicide—a difference that Kant enforces and that Derrida contests; and even the collapse of the distinction between the sovereign powers to put to death and to pardon, a possibility that is shown up by a poetic work when, performatively, it “plays the law.” In relation to the death penalties they represent, these literary survivals may be seen as the ashes or remains of the phantasm that the death penalty has always been, the phantasm of calculating and thus ending finitude.Less
This book pursues Derrida’s assertion, in The Death Penalty, Volume I, that “the modern history of the institution named literature in Europe over the last three or four centuries is contemporary with and indissociable from a contestation of the death penalty.” The main question this book poses is: How does literature contest the death penalty today, particularly in the United States where it remains the last of its kind, a Christian-inspired death penalty in what professes to be a democracy? What resources do fiction, narrative, and poetic language supply in the age of the remains of the death penalty? These are among the questions that guide the analyses of four literary works, each a depiction or an account of an execution, in the search for deconstructive leverage on the concepts that prop up capital punishment. Different pertinent features are isolated in these texts: the “mysteries” of literary or poetic witness; the publicness of punishment in an era of secrecy around the death penalty; the undecidable difference between death by capital punishment and by suicide—a difference that Kant enforces and that Derrida contests; and even the collapse of the distinction between the sovereign powers to put to death and to pardon, a possibility that is shown up by a poetic work when, performatively, it “plays the law.” In relation to the death penalties they represent, these literary survivals may be seen as the ashes or remains of the phantasm that the death penalty has always been, the phantasm of calculating and thus ending finitude.
Julie Coleman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199549375
- eISBN:
- 9780191720772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549375.003.0011
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Lexicography
This chapter looks at some of the consequences of the First World War by grouping together dictionaries of the homeless. The earliest deal with the carefree life of the hobo, a popular figure in the ...
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This chapter looks at some of the consequences of the First World War by grouping together dictionaries of the homeless. The earliest deal with the carefree life of the hobo, a popular figure in the cinema of the between-wars period, while later ones consider the miseries of homeless orphaned children during the Depression.Less
This chapter looks at some of the consequences of the First World War by grouping together dictionaries of the homeless. The earliest deal with the carefree life of the hobo, a popular figure in the cinema of the between-wars period, while later ones consider the miseries of homeless orphaned children during the Depression.
Andrew N. Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154152
- eISBN:
- 9781400842179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154152.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter considers the role of author George Orwell in the context of the globalization of literature. Orwell's late fiction, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), helped to define ...
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This chapter considers the role of author George Orwell in the context of the globalization of literature. Orwell's late fiction, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), helped to define and structure Western political and cultural conceptions of totalitarianism. In particular, the chapter looks at the universality of Nineteen Eighty-Four and how it has resonated even in the present day. It asks how our understanding of the process by which the novel was repeatedly translated, retranslated, adapted into different forms, and globalized enable us to think beyond the terms of the text and provide us with a better understanding of the cultural dimensions of the transnationalization of literature.Less
This chapter considers the role of author George Orwell in the context of the globalization of literature. Orwell's late fiction, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), helped to define and structure Western political and cultural conceptions of totalitarianism. In particular, the chapter looks at the universality of Nineteen Eighty-Four and how it has resonated even in the present day. It asks how our understanding of the process by which the novel was repeatedly translated, retranslated, adapted into different forms, and globalized enable us to think beyond the terms of the text and provide us with a better understanding of the cultural dimensions of the transnationalization of literature.
David Ellwood
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198228790
- eISBN:
- 9780191741739
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198228790.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter is divided into three main sections. Firstly, it embraces emergence of a vast American determination to reform the world so as to eliminate the roots of Europe's ability to b ring war ...
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This chapter is divided into three main sections. Firstly, it embraces emergence of a vast American determination to reform the world so as to eliminate the roots of Europe's ability to b ring war and revolution to it. The vision, developed in acts such as Lend Lease and conferences such as Bretton Woods, was based on three key principles: multilateral trade liberalization, reformed collective security, raising living standards everywhere. These ideas of the postwar universe were far more important to Roosevelt than the in's and out's of his relations with Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle or whoever, and ran through much of the vast American popular debate on the future role of the US in the world. Secondly, the chapter looks at response of the British and French leadership in particular to the emergence of this design. The British understood rightly that it contained a mortal threat to the British Empire; the other colonial powers, including the Dutch, soon fought it too. There was much disdain for American naivety, and at the same time fear of the extreme ruthlessness the Americans brought to dealings over markets, currencies, raw materials, civil aviation etc. Thirdly the chapter considers speculation of European intellectuals on the world after the war and America's possible place in it. In general these people wholly underestimated the new American will to power, and ignored its contents, all agreeing that the age of free enterprise capitalism was finished in any case, and collectivisms of various types would take over. The exile component in America and elsewhere poured scorn on these ideas, but they dominated resistance and anti-fascist movements everywhere. One thing the Europeans all agreed on was that the popular masses would never go back to the miseries of the pre-war era, and that expectations for a better life had risen, not least because America had shown the way.Less
This chapter is divided into three main sections. Firstly, it embraces emergence of a vast American determination to reform the world so as to eliminate the roots of Europe's ability to b ring war and revolution to it. The vision, developed in acts such as Lend Lease and conferences such as Bretton Woods, was based on three key principles: multilateral trade liberalization, reformed collective security, raising living standards everywhere. These ideas of the postwar universe were far more important to Roosevelt than the in's and out's of his relations with Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle or whoever, and ran through much of the vast American popular debate on the future role of the US in the world. Secondly, the chapter looks at response of the British and French leadership in particular to the emergence of this design. The British understood rightly that it contained a mortal threat to the British Empire; the other colonial powers, including the Dutch, soon fought it too. There was much disdain for American naivety, and at the same time fear of the extreme ruthlessness the Americans brought to dealings over markets, currencies, raw materials, civil aviation etc. Thirdly the chapter considers speculation of European intellectuals on the world after the war and America's possible place in it. In general these people wholly underestimated the new American will to power, and ignored its contents, all agreeing that the age of free enterprise capitalism was finished in any case, and collectivisms of various types would take over. The exile component in America and elsewhere poured scorn on these ideas, but they dominated resistance and anti-fascist movements everywhere. One thing the Europeans all agreed on was that the popular masses would never go back to the miseries of the pre-war era, and that expectations for a better life had risen, not least because America had shown the way.
Peggy Kamuf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282302
- eISBN:
- 9780823284801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282302.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This brief conclusion remarks that the four fictional works featured in the book all conclude with something like a postmortem, a survival of the narrative after the execution represented. In the ...
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This brief conclusion remarks that the four fictional works featured in the book all conclude with something like a postmortem, a survival of the narrative after the execution represented. In the case of The Executioner’s Song, it is a postmortem in the clinical sense, which I briefly characterize. This condition of literature’s survival leads me to reflect, finally, on literature’s ambiguous relations to the death penalty; on the one hand, like the witness to an execution, literature can seem to fulfill or enable the executions it represents; on the other hand, these literary survivals are the ashes or remains of a phantasm that would calculate the end and put an end to finitude.Less
This brief conclusion remarks that the four fictional works featured in the book all conclude with something like a postmortem, a survival of the narrative after the execution represented. In the case of The Executioner’s Song, it is a postmortem in the clinical sense, which I briefly characterize. This condition of literature’s survival leads me to reflect, finally, on literature’s ambiguous relations to the death penalty; on the one hand, like the witness to an execution, literature can seem to fulfill or enable the executions it represents; on the other hand, these literary survivals are the ashes or remains of a phantasm that would calculate the end and put an end to finitude.
Thomas S. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231169424
- eISBN:
- 9780231537889
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169424.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to travel narratives from global hot zones where the examination of everyday life reveals the emergence of a new form of warfare shifting the balance of power in Europe and Asia.
This chapter turns to travel narratives from global hot zones where the examination of everyday life reveals the emergence of a new form of warfare shifting the balance of power in Europe and Asia.
Patrick Deer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239887
- eISBN:
- 9780191716782
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239887.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Chapter 2 traces the literary response to the seductive futurist appeal and colonialist genealogy of air power in two World Wars. After the Great War, the “empire of the air” was celebrated as a ...
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Chapter 2 traces the literary response to the seductive futurist appeal and colonialist genealogy of air power in two World Wars. After the Great War, the “empire of the air” was celebrated as a last resort of martial heroism and the colonies provided laboratories for experiment. The interwar period saw the consolidating imperial gaze of air power and mechanized war turned on the civilian home front as both apocalyptic nightmare and escapist fantasy. This chapter explores T.E. Lawrence's haunting fantasies of air power as he dedicated mind and body to the RAF's role in policing the empire in the 1920s and 30s. It argues that for those who waged the war of space and movement, the mythology of armored masculinity and panoramic vision all too often resulted in blackout and bodily disintegration. It explores these conflicts of “airmindedness” in the work of Virginia Woolf, Rex Warner, George Orwell, Richard Hillary, and Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris.Less
Chapter 2 traces the literary response to the seductive futurist appeal and colonialist genealogy of air power in two World Wars. After the Great War, the “empire of the air” was celebrated as a last resort of martial heroism and the colonies provided laboratories for experiment. The interwar period saw the consolidating imperial gaze of air power and mechanized war turned on the civilian home front as both apocalyptic nightmare and escapist fantasy. This chapter explores T.E. Lawrence's haunting fantasies of air power as he dedicated mind and body to the RAF's role in policing the empire in the 1920s and 30s. It argues that for those who waged the war of space and movement, the mythology of armored masculinity and panoramic vision all too often resulted in blackout and bodily disintegration. It explores these conflicts of “airmindedness” in the work of Virginia Woolf, Rex Warner, George Orwell, Richard Hillary, and Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris.
Patrick Deer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239887
- eISBN:
- 9780191716782
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239887.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Chapter 5 explores the struggle for modern memory in Second World War writing and reconstructs wartime debates about national identity, social reconstruction, decolonization, and popular culture. ...
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Chapter 5 explores the struggle for modern memory in Second World War writing and reconstructs wartime debates about national identity, social reconstruction, decolonization, and popular culture. The wartime culture boom, it contends, produced a cosmopolitan, hybrid aesthetic that challenged conventional constructions of gender and Englishness. The example of the Great War promised major literary creation after a period of delayed recollection, yet as World War Two writers suggested, total warfare threatened both memory and the survival of a common culture. The chapter explores debates about propaganda, pacifism, and the autonomy of high culture in the work of Keith Douglas, Virginia Woolf, Cyril Connolly, Alex Comfort, George Orwell, or Evelyn Waugh. In Alexander Baron's postwar novel, From the City, From the Plough (1949), it traces how the mythic solidarities of the People's War are confront the violence of mechanized warfare, colonialism, and the relentless abstraction of the strategists' view of battle.Less
Chapter 5 explores the struggle for modern memory in Second World War writing and reconstructs wartime debates about national identity, social reconstruction, decolonization, and popular culture. The wartime culture boom, it contends, produced a cosmopolitan, hybrid aesthetic that challenged conventional constructions of gender and Englishness. The example of the Great War promised major literary creation after a period of delayed recollection, yet as World War Two writers suggested, total warfare threatened both memory and the survival of a common culture. The chapter explores debates about propaganda, pacifism, and the autonomy of high culture in the work of Keith Douglas, Virginia Woolf, Cyril Connolly, Alex Comfort, George Orwell, or Evelyn Waugh. In Alexander Baron's postwar novel, From the City, From the Plough (1949), it traces how the mythic solidarities of the People's War are confront the violence of mechanized warfare, colonialism, and the relentless abstraction of the strategists' view of battle.
Patrick Deer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239887
- eISBN:
- 9780191716782
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239887.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The Conclusion argues that the real rupture in British literary tradition comes not during the Second World War, but after it. In the late 1940s, the literary boom of the war years gave way to a ...
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The Conclusion argues that the real rupture in British literary tradition comes not during the Second World War, but after it. In the late 1940s, the literary boom of the war years gave way to a culture of silence about the traumatic effects of war. Reading the postwar work of Orwell and Churchill, it argues that — overshadowed by the monumental productions of official war culture, film and popular culture, and in sharp contrast to the boom in war writing of the 1920s — wartime writers found themselves out in the cold. These were the hostile conditions in which Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart pioneered the oppositional project of cultural studies. It concludes that this process of silencing was hastened by the insurgent Angry generation of the 1950s, who rejected the aesthetic and political complexity of wartime writing, and as critics denied it a place in the insular post-war canon.Less
The Conclusion argues that the real rupture in British literary tradition comes not during the Second World War, but after it. In the late 1940s, the literary boom of the war years gave way to a culture of silence about the traumatic effects of war. Reading the postwar work of Orwell and Churchill, it argues that — overshadowed by the monumental productions of official war culture, film and popular culture, and in sharp contrast to the boom in war writing of the 1920s — wartime writers found themselves out in the cold. These were the hostile conditions in which Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart pioneered the oppositional project of cultural studies. It concludes that this process of silencing was hastened by the insurgent Angry generation of the 1950s, who rejected the aesthetic and political complexity of wartime writing, and as critics denied it a place in the insular post-war canon.
David Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719078088
- eISBN:
- 9781781704592
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078088.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book charts the changing nature of cinematic depictions of the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, a significant number of artists, filmmakers and writers – from George Orwell and Pablo Picasso to Joris ...
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This book charts the changing nature of cinematic depictions of the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, a significant number of artists, filmmakers and writers – from George Orwell and Pablo Picasso to Joris Ivens and Joan Miró – rallied to support the country's democratically elected Republican government. The arts have played an important role in shaping popular understandings of the Spanish Civil War, and the book examines the specific role cinema has played in this process. Its focus is on fictional feature films produced within Spain and beyond its borders between the 1940s and the early years of the twenty-first century – including Hollywood blockbusters, East European films, the work of the avant garde in Paris and films produced under Franco's censorial dictatorship.Less
This book charts the changing nature of cinematic depictions of the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, a significant number of artists, filmmakers and writers – from George Orwell and Pablo Picasso to Joris Ivens and Joan Miró – rallied to support the country's democratically elected Republican government. The arts have played an important role in shaping popular understandings of the Spanish Civil War, and the book examines the specific role cinema has played in this process. Its focus is on fictional feature films produced within Spain and beyond its borders between the 1940s and the early years of the twenty-first century – including Hollywood blockbusters, East European films, the work of the avant garde in Paris and films produced under Franco's censorial dictatorship.
Andrew J. Friedenthal
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811325
- eISBN:
- 9781496811363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811325.003.0053
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This conclusion returns to the differences between retroactive continuity and politically motivated historical revisionism. In so doing, it discusses how retconning is most often celebratory in ...
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This conclusion returns to the differences between retroactive continuity and politically motivated historical revisionism. In so doing, it discusses how retconning is most often celebratory in nature, and represents an embracing of the mutable past rather than an Orwellian erasing of it. It returns to the metaphor of a “hyperlinked America” in order to show how the narrative game of retroactive continuity has helped to create a more fluid, changeable, and dynamic world.Less
This conclusion returns to the differences between retroactive continuity and politically motivated historical revisionism. In so doing, it discusses how retconning is most often celebratory in nature, and represents an embracing of the mutable past rather than an Orwellian erasing of it. It returns to the metaphor of a “hyperlinked America” in order to show how the narrative game of retroactive continuity has helped to create a more fluid, changeable, and dynamic world.
Patrick Parrinder
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199264858
- eISBN:
- 9780191698989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264858.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In the early 19th century, the question of the nationhood of England became an interest for different artists and intellectuals. The chapter elaborates on the works of Orwell, Woolf, Foster, and ...
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In the early 19th century, the question of the nationhood of England became an interest for different artists and intellectuals. The chapter elaborates on the works of Orwell, Woolf, Foster, and other intellectuals regarding the future of England. One of the usual themes used by the novels is the advancement of destructive imperialism.Less
In the early 19th century, the question of the nationhood of England became an interest for different artists and intellectuals. The chapter elaborates on the works of Orwell, Woolf, Foster, and other intellectuals regarding the future of England. One of the usual themes used by the novels is the advancement of destructive imperialism.
Patrick Parrinder
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199264858
- eISBN:
- 9780191698989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264858.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The decline of the British Empire was a popular subject of English fiction and a contended topic in English identity. ‘Bloomsbury’ ethics emerged from the traditional idealism of literary culture. ...
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The decline of the British Empire was a popular subject of English fiction and a contended topic in English identity. ‘Bloomsbury’ ethics emerged from the traditional idealism of literary culture. The chapter contains a detailed discussion of the works of Foster, Kipling, Orwell, and J. A. Hobson on imperialism.Less
The decline of the British Empire was a popular subject of English fiction and a contended topic in English identity. ‘Bloomsbury’ ethics emerged from the traditional idealism of literary culture. The chapter contains a detailed discussion of the works of Foster, Kipling, Orwell, and J. A. Hobson on imperialism.
Peter Marks
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474400190
- eISBN:
- 9781474412339
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474400190.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Imagining Surveillance provides the first extensive and intensive study of surveillance as depicted and assessed in literature and film. Focusing on the utopian genre (which includes positive ...
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Imagining Surveillance provides the first extensive and intensive study of surveillance as depicted and assessed in literature and film. Focusing on the utopian genre (which includes positive eutopias and negative dystopias), this book offers an in-depth account of how creative writers, filmmakers and thinkers have envisioned other worlds in which surveillance operates, for good and ill. It explores how surveillance scholars have utilized these fictional works in understanding the myriad implications of surveillance in the contemporary world. From Thomas More’s Utopia to recent novels and films such as Dave Eggers’ The Circle and Spike Jonze’s Her, Imagining Surveillance traces the long history of surveillance in imaginative texts well before and after George Orwell’s iconic Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book argues that creative texts have long offered subtle, complex and provocative readings of surveillance that investigate the human dimension of this fast-developing, at times invisible, and undoubtedly transformative element of twenty-first century life. Novels and films supply scenarios and narratives that prompt readers and viewers to consider the personal, ethical, social and political questions proliferating surveillance raises. With chapters on the relationships between surveillance and visibility, spaces, identities, technologies, and the shape of things to come, Imagining Surveillance establishes itself at the leading edge of the emerging cultural studies of surveillance.Less
Imagining Surveillance provides the first extensive and intensive study of surveillance as depicted and assessed in literature and film. Focusing on the utopian genre (which includes positive eutopias and negative dystopias), this book offers an in-depth account of how creative writers, filmmakers and thinkers have envisioned other worlds in which surveillance operates, for good and ill. It explores how surveillance scholars have utilized these fictional works in understanding the myriad implications of surveillance in the contemporary world. From Thomas More’s Utopia to recent novels and films such as Dave Eggers’ The Circle and Spike Jonze’s Her, Imagining Surveillance traces the long history of surveillance in imaginative texts well before and after George Orwell’s iconic Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book argues that creative texts have long offered subtle, complex and provocative readings of surveillance that investigate the human dimension of this fast-developing, at times invisible, and undoubtedly transformative element of twenty-first century life. Novels and films supply scenarios and narratives that prompt readers and viewers to consider the personal, ethical, social and political questions proliferating surveillance raises. With chapters on the relationships between surveillance and visibility, spaces, identities, technologies, and the shape of things to come, Imagining Surveillance establishes itself at the leading edge of the emerging cultural studies of surveillance.
Peggy Kamuf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282302
- eISBN:
- 9780823284801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282302.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The question of the chapter is the role of the witness in a capital execution. In contrast to Foucault, who asserted the becoming-invisible of punishment, Derrida insists that “By definition, there ...
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The question of the chapter is the role of the witness in a capital execution. In contrast to Foucault, who asserted the becoming-invisible of punishment, Derrida insists that “By definition, there will never have been any invisibility for a legal putting to death . . . the spectacle and the spectator are required.” George Orwell’s early short text “A Hanging” is read very closely here to discern how this essential trait of non-secrecy is put to the test when the witness’s testimony is consigned to a literary text and thus to a set of sealed traces.Less
The question of the chapter is the role of the witness in a capital execution. In contrast to Foucault, who asserted the becoming-invisible of punishment, Derrida insists that “By definition, there will never have been any invisibility for a legal putting to death . . . the spectacle and the spectator are required.” George Orwell’s early short text “A Hanging” is read very closely here to discern how this essential trait of non-secrecy is put to the test when the witness’s testimony is consigned to a literary text and thus to a set of sealed traces.
Edward Craig
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198236825
- eISBN:
- 9780191597244
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198236824.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines central philosophical themes and doctrines of twentieth century philosophy in the light of the Agency Theory. Craig argues that despite the unpopularity of philosophical visions ...
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This chapter examines central philosophical themes and doctrines of twentieth century philosophy in the light of the Agency Theory. Craig argues that despite the unpopularity of philosophical visions of high generality in contemporary philosophy, the Agency Theory is the one vision, or Weltbild, on which much twentieth century philosophy explicitly or implicitly relies. It is evident in the philosophical doctrines of the Vienna Circle, with its radically emotivist accounts of value and radically conventionalist accounts of the a priori. It is evident in the numerous attacks on moral realism, which invite us, instead of thinking about morality not in terms of an independent realm of moral facts that obtain independently of our thinking about them, to see ourselves as the creators of ethical value. It is evident in existentialism, with its belief in absolute human freedom and its demand for absolute moral independence, manifested in the existentialist ethics of authenticity. It is evident in the prevalence of ‘opacity’, our willing acceptance of brute facts without further explanation as long as our beliefs about those facts are reliable. Finally, the dominance of the Agency Theory is evident in epistemology, where the community has taken over many responsibilities that the individual used to have, as well as in the theory of meaning, where accounts of meaning are given in terms of the use of words in a linguistic community, as by Wittgenstein and Austin, or in terms of the speaker’s environment, as in the externalist account of meaning advocated by Putnam. But, as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four illustrate, too much enthusiasm for human activity has its dangers.Less
This chapter examines central philosophical themes and doctrines of twentieth century philosophy in the light of the Agency Theory. Craig argues that despite the unpopularity of philosophical visions of high generality in contemporary philosophy, the Agency Theory is the one vision, or Weltbild, on which much twentieth century philosophy explicitly or implicitly relies. It is evident in the philosophical doctrines of the Vienna Circle, with its radically emotivist accounts of value and radically conventionalist accounts of the a priori. It is evident in the numerous attacks on moral realism, which invite us, instead of thinking about morality not in terms of an independent realm of moral facts that obtain independently of our thinking about them, to see ourselves as the creators of ethical value. It is evident in existentialism, with its belief in absolute human freedom and its demand for absolute moral independence, manifested in the existentialist ethics of authenticity. It is evident in the prevalence of ‘opacity’, our willing acceptance of brute facts without further explanation as long as our beliefs about those facts are reliable. Finally, the dominance of the Agency Theory is evident in epistemology, where the community has taken over many responsibilities that the individual used to have, as well as in the theory of meaning, where accounts of meaning are given in terms of the use of words in a linguistic community, as by Wittgenstein and Austin, or in terms of the speaker’s environment, as in the externalist account of meaning advocated by Putnam. But, as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four illustrate, too much enthusiasm for human activity has its dangers.
Anthony O'Hear
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198250043
- eISBN:
- 9780191598111
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198250045.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
In morality, self‐consciousness and evolution can pull in different ways. While, as Humphrey has shown, evolution can explain the existence of self‐consciousness and empathy and socio‐biologists have ...
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In morality, self‐consciousness and evolution can pull in different ways. While, as Humphrey has shown, evolution can explain the existence of self‐consciousness and empathy and socio‐biologists have shown how self‐interest can lead to the existence of reciprocal altruism and kin selection, this falls short of genuine morality, which seems to require the possibility of true altruism and self‐sacrifice. Following Sartre we must understand the importance of the reciprocal ’gaze’ of other members of our linguistic community in forming our identity as selves. Hayek has argued that a social evolutionary account, in which those traditional societal practices that are successful persist and flourish, ought to motivate us to favour a form of irrationalism over immediate individual rational reflection. Similarly, Orwell has argued for the powerful motivational effects of traditional and less transparently rational virtues such as patriotism and fidelity. Despite this, however, we ought not to adopt an unquestioning obedience to tradition or to the demands of immediate rationality, but rather, following Edmund Burke, remain both wary of extreme rationalism and aware of the benefits of tradition and of powerful allegiances to our particular countries and communities while continuing to employ rational reflection on our moral standards and practices where appropriate.Less
In morality, self‐consciousness and evolution can pull in different ways. While, as Humphrey has shown, evolution can explain the existence of self‐consciousness and empathy and socio‐biologists have shown how self‐interest can lead to the existence of reciprocal altruism and kin selection, this falls short of genuine morality, which seems to require the possibility of true altruism and self‐sacrifice. Following Sartre we must understand the importance of the reciprocal ’gaze’ of other members of our linguistic community in forming our identity as selves. Hayek has argued that a social evolutionary account, in which those traditional societal practices that are successful persist and flourish, ought to motivate us to favour a form of irrationalism over immediate individual rational reflection. Similarly, Orwell has argued for the powerful motivational effects of traditional and less transparently rational virtues such as patriotism and fidelity. Despite this, however, we ought not to adopt an unquestioning obedience to tradition or to the demands of immediate rationality, but rather, following Edmund Burke, remain both wary of extreme rationalism and aware of the benefits of tradition and of powerful allegiances to our particular countries and communities while continuing to employ rational reflection on our moral standards and practices where appropriate.
Joseph McAleer
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203292
- eISBN:
- 9780191675843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203292.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book is concerned with the reading public which Wilkie Collins and George Orwell tried to describe, during the period when Orwell wrote and which Collins would have recognised: from 1914 until ...
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This book is concerned with the reading public which Wilkie Collins and George Orwell tried to describe, during the period when Orwell wrote and which Collins would have recognised: from 1914 until 1950. The book examines three publishing houses, noting in particular their complicated editorial policies within the increasingly ‘mass’ market. These are Mills & Boon, D. C. Thomson, and the Religious Tract Society. Mills & Boon and D. C. Thomson were the quintessential publishers of the early 20th century: essentially commercial enterprises, each firm reflected changing social values within its publications while courting their readerships. The Religious Tract Society was less successful: a 19th-century foundation embodying the spirit of Victorian liberalism, it failed to adapt to a changing (and increasingly secular) world, with disastrous results.Less
This book is concerned with the reading public which Wilkie Collins and George Orwell tried to describe, during the period when Orwell wrote and which Collins would have recognised: from 1914 until 1950. The book examines three publishing houses, noting in particular their complicated editorial policies within the increasingly ‘mass’ market. These are Mills & Boon, D. C. Thomson, and the Religious Tract Society. Mills & Boon and D. C. Thomson were the quintessential publishers of the early 20th century: essentially commercial enterprises, each firm reflected changing social values within its publications while courting their readerships. The Religious Tract Society was less successful: a 19th-century foundation embodying the spirit of Victorian liberalism, it failed to adapt to a changing (and increasingly secular) world, with disastrous results.
Joseph McAleer
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203292
- eISBN:
- 9780191675843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203292.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
It is clear that Wilkie Collins and George Orwell were largely correct in their conclusions about the reading public and the popular publishing industry. They both claimed that reading among both ...
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It is clear that Wilkie Collins and George Orwell were largely correct in their conclusions about the reading public and the popular publishing industry. They both claimed that reading among both adults and children in the lower-middle and working classes was a popular leisure activity. This book agrees with two of Orwell's assertions about the contents of boys' weeklies and romantic novels: the resolution of good fortune; there was no social or collective solution, and no alternative image of social improvement or organisation was presented. In fact, publishers such as Mills & Boon and D. C. Thomson were careful to make their plots as apolitical and ‘uncontroversial’ as possible. However, the ‘Unknown Public’, which this book has tried to define, did not graduate to ‘high-brow’ novels and non-fiction, as Collins predicted with robust optimism.Less
It is clear that Wilkie Collins and George Orwell were largely correct in their conclusions about the reading public and the popular publishing industry. They both claimed that reading among both adults and children in the lower-middle and working classes was a popular leisure activity. This book agrees with two of Orwell's assertions about the contents of boys' weeklies and romantic novels: the resolution of good fortune; there was no social or collective solution, and no alternative image of social improvement or organisation was presented. In fact, publishers such as Mills & Boon and D. C. Thomson were careful to make their plots as apolitical and ‘uncontroversial’ as possible. However, the ‘Unknown Public’, which this book has tried to define, did not graduate to ‘high-brow’ novels and non-fiction, as Collins predicted with robust optimism.
Jeffrey J. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263806
- eISBN:
- 9780823266432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263806.003.0032
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter gives advice on editing. It is framed in a mocking tone, inveighing against academic habits such as excessive citation and jargon. However, despite its mockery, it calls for better ...
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This chapter gives advice on editing. It is framed in a mocking tone, inveighing against academic habits such as excessive citation and jargon. However, despite its mockery, it calls for better editing and affirms the value of good writing.Less
This chapter gives advice on editing. It is framed in a mocking tone, inveighing against academic habits such as excessive citation and jargon. However, despite its mockery, it calls for better editing and affirms the value of good writing.
