Modernity reimagined : an analytic guide / Chandra Mukerji.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mukerji, Chandra, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization, Modern.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 194 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

With this remarkable new book, Chandra Mukerji offers an explanation of the birth and subsequent proliferation of the many strands in the braid of modernity. She teases those strands apart, using forms of cultural analysis from the social sciences to approach history with fresh eyes. Faced with the problem of trying to understand what is hardest to see-the familiar-she gains analytic distance and clarity by juxtaposing cultural analysis with history, asking how modernity began and how people conjured into existence the world we now recognize as modern. Modernity Reimagined is not just an explanation, an analysis of how modern life came to be, it is also a model for how to do cultural thinking about today's world. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 History of Modern Social Forms

1 Modern Selves And Fashion 3

Medieval Identity 4

The Black Death 6

Modern Subjectivity 8

Burgundian Fashion and Moral Worth 10

Italian Fashion and the Distant Self 12

Spanish Fashion and the Christian Warrior 15

Dutch Fashion and Consumer Culture 17

French Fashion and the Theater of Power 18

Fashionable Dress and Modern Selves 21

2 Communities of Strangers and Infrastructure 23

Print Infrastructure and the Wars of Religion 26

The Parisian Water Surely 30

3 Cultural Imaginaries and Modern States 37

Immersive Theater and Political Spectacle 41

Learning by Doing 43

The Power of the Artisans 46

The Modern State 50

4 Discursive Modernity and Global Industrial Capitalism 51

Philosophical Modernities 54

Modern Nation States 57

Modern Cities 61

The Experimental Self 68

Part 2 Genealogies of Modern Social Types

5 Geopolitics and Discourses of Race 73

Mono Genesis and Moral Differences (Cell A) 78

Monogenesis and Degree of Civilization (Cell B) 82

Polygenesis and Difference of Temperament (Cell C) 84

Polygenesis and Racial Supremacy (Cell D) 86

The Legacy of Racial Imaginaries 89

6 Property, Labor, and Discourses of Gender 91

Gendered Differences 94

Natural Man and Artificial Woman 95

Gender, Property, and Labor 97

Gender Culture and Industrial Labor 99

7 The Ascent of Man and Discourses of Childhood 107

Modern Versions of Childhood 108

Developmental Childhood 113

Animals and Monsters 116

The Problem of Modern Selves 118

Part 3 Popular Tools of Modern Life

8 Digital Games and Navigating Modernity 123

Games as Pedagogical Tools 125

Serious Games of Military Simulation 126

Mazes and Serious Games of Life 129

Digital Maze Games and Modern Subjectivity 135

Mage and Minions 135

Spider-Man 2 (3D) 136

Monument Valley 137

Games of Modern Life 139

9 Philosophical Media and Critiques of Modernity 141

No Country for Old Men 143

Einstein's Wife 145

Where the Heart Is 146

Independence Day 148

Thought Experiments and Philosophical Machines 150

10 Escape Routes and Restlessness 153

Aesthetic Escape Routes 157

Political Escape Routes 159

Escaping Material Modernity 164

The Restless Self and Grief 169.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781138825338

1138825336

9781138825345

1138825344

OCLC:

955778730