Imaginal politics : images beyond imagination and the imaginary / Chiara Bottici ; cover image, J.R. Eyerman ; book & cover design, Chang Jae Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bottici, Chiara, author.

Contributor:

Eyerman, J. R., photographer.

Lee, Chang Jae, book designer, cover designer.

Series:

New directions in critical theory.

New Directions in Critical Theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imagination--Political aspects.

Imagination.

Visualization--Political aspects.

Visualization.

Imagery (Psychology)--Political aspects.

Imagery (Psychology).

Political science--Philosophy.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Between the radical, creative capacity of our imagination and the social imaginary we are immersed in is an intermediate space philosophers have termed the imaginal, populated by images or (re)presentations that are presences in themselves. Offering a new, systematic understanding of the imaginal and its nexus with the political, Chiara Bottici brings fresh perspective to the formation of political and power relationships and the paradox of a world rich in imagery yet seemingly devoid of imagination. Bottici begins by defining the difference between the imaginal and the imaginary, locating the imaginal's root meaning in the image and its ability to both characterize a public and establish a set of activities within that public. She identifies the imaginal's critical role in powering representative democracies and its amplification through globalization. She then addresses the troublesome increase in images now mediating politics and the transformation of politics into empty spectacle. The spectacularization of politics has led to its virtualization, Bottici observes, transforming images into processes with an uncertain relationship to reality, and, while new media has democratized the image in a global society of the spectacle, the cloned image no longer mediates politics but does the act for us. Bottici concludes with politics' current search for legitimacy through an invented ideal of tradition, a turn to religion, and the incorporation of human rights language.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1. Imagining

1. From Phantasia to Imagination

2. From Imagination to the Imaginary and Beyond?

3. Toward a Theory of the Imaginal

Part 2. Politics

4. A Genealogy of Politics: From Its Invention to the Biopolitical Turn

5. Imaginal Politics

6. Contemporary Transformations Between Spectacle and Virtuality

Part 3. The Global Spectacle

7. The Politics of the Past: The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations

8. The Repositioning of Religion in the Public Sphere: Imaginal Consequences

9. Imagining Human Rights: Gender, Race, and Class

The Freedom of Equals

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780231527811

0231527810

OCLC:

879610639