The intoxication of destruction in theory, culture and media : a philosophy of expenditure after Georges Bataille / Erin K. Stapleton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stapleton, Erin K., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962.

Bataille, Georges.

Aesthetics.

Mass media--Philosophy.

Mass media.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (206 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2022.

Summary:

This book examines the desire for, and intoxication with, destruction as it appears in cultural objects and representation, arguing that all cultural and aesthetic value is fundamentally predicated on its own fragility, as well as the living transience of those who make and encounter it. Beginning with a philosophy of expenditure after Georges Bataille, each chapter maps different operations of destruction in media and culture. These operations are expressed and located in representations of human extinction and explosive architecture, in the body and in sexuality, and in media and digital archives, which constitute a further destabilisation of the notion of destruction in the dynamic between aspirational immortality and material volatility embedded in the archival systems of digital cultures.

Contents:

Part 1: Spectacular Expenditure (from Sacrifice to Execution)

Part 2: Eroticism (The Destruction of Sexuality)

Works Cited

Destruction IV: Matter

Part 1: Accelerating Destruction (The Material of Media)

Part 2: The Material of the Digital (Computational Immortality)

Conclusion: The Destroyers

Bibliography

Index

Cover

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface: The Intoxication of Destruction

Introduction: Destruction and Immortality

The Origins of Destruction, Immortality

Expenditure and Destruction in Media Cultures

Destruction I: Energy

Part 1: The General Economy

Part 2: Sovereignty and Heterogeneity

Destruction II: World

Part 1: Exploding Monuments (The Destruction Of Architecture)

Part 2: Extinction (The Destruction of Everyone Else)

Destruction III: Body

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-003-70665-7

90-485-6189-2

90-485-5164-1

9781003706656

OCLC:

1311312418