Capital in the mirror : critical social theory and the aesthetic dimension / edited by Daniel Krier and Mark P. Worrell.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Krier, Dan, 1965- editor.

Worrell, Mark P., editor.

Series:

SUNY series in new political science.

SUNY Series in New Political Science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Critical theory.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (344 pages).

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : SUNY Press, [2020]

Summary:

"Aesthetic objects, crafted as poetic reflections of the contradictory worlds that they inhabit, are simultaneously theorized and theorizing. In Capital in the Mirror: Critical Social Theory and the Aesthetic Dimension, eminent critical theorists explore the aesthetic dimension for reflective visions of capital that are difficult to obtain through even the most rigorous statistical analyses. Chapters work together to analyze capitalism through the prism of acclaimed aesthetic products by Herman Melville, Thomas Mann, Charles Dickens, J.W. Goethe, Friedrich Hïlerlin, Walt Whitman, Berthold Brecht, and science fiction cinema. Famous narrative elements in these works, such as Ahab's pursuit of the white whale in Melville's Moby Dick; demonic production and perverse desire in Mann's Doctor Faustus, socially electrified bodies of Whitman's Leaves, dystopian projections of current sci-fi cinema, are theorized as stylistically-distorted reflections of social life within capital. The authors reveal theoretical powers latent within these condensed images that prefigure the dark dynamics of capitalism. The book is divided into two sections: one devoted to dark images of domination (Twilight) and a second devoted to prophetic images of transformation (Dawn), pointing the way toward emancipation, social regeneration, and human flourishing"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

The Mirror of Capital: An Introduction to Critical Poiesis

Theoria beyond Praxis: Critical Poiesis

Outline of the Book

Note

References

Part I. Twilight

1. An Insane Book, an Insane Country, an Insane System: Moby-Dick, U.S. Hegemony, and the Catastrophe of Capital

Introduction

Moby-Dick: A Prophetic Anticipation of U.S. Hegemony

M (Investment Capital)

Commodity Capital1: Inputs (C)

Capital in Production Process (P)

The Allocation of Risks

The Politics of Time

Commodity Capital2: Output (C')

Valorized Money Capital (M')

The Antinomies of the Period, The Antinomies of Capital

Ahab and the "Principal/Agent" Problem

The Crew and the Limits of Democracy in "Democratic" Capitalism

The Revenge of Moby-Dick, the Revenge of Nature

Conclusion

Notes

2. Marxist Aesthetics, Realism, and Photography: On Brecht's War Primer

Introduction: Iconophobia in Critical Theory?

The Visible and the Invisible in Marxist Methodology and Aesthetics

Brecht's Critical Aesthetics

The Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung

Photography and Mimesis as Memory

The Visible and the Invisible in the Kriegsfibel

The (In)Visible I: Memory

The (In)Visible II: Montage

The (In)Visible III: War

3. The Poetics of Nihilism: Representing Capital's Indifference in Dickens' Hard Times

Introduction: Literature and Social Theory

Constitutive Forms and Shadow Forms

Art and Philosophy: A Hegelian Counterpoint to Dickens

Hard Times and the Gradgrind Philosophy

The Gradgrind Philosophy and Utilitarianism

The Harthouse Philosophy as the Truth of the Gradgrind Philosophy

Dickens, Hard Times, and Capitalism

Conclusion: Taking on Capital's Shadow Forms

References.

4. The Repressed Returns: Mann's Doctor Faustus and the Fugue of Capital

Mann's Life and Doctor Faustus

Variations on Mann's Recurring Themes

Fugue Structure in Doctor Faustus

The Calling in Doctor Faustus

The Calling: Playing with an Immanent Structural Order

Music as an Immanent Structure

The Calling and Productive Sickness: Dying into Work

The Polyphony of Callings and the Technical Frontier

The Return of the Repressed: The Totalization and Return to Folk Aesthetics

Part II. Dawn

5. "Shakespearian Politics" and World History

Three Themes in a "Shakespearian Politics"

Theme 1: Political Authority Is Not Determined by A "Natural" Hierarchical Order, But by Power Struggles between Competing Elite

Theme 2: Once Acquired, Political Authority Tends to Be Maintained through Normatively Questionable Means

Theme 3: Oppression is the "Normal" Condition of Political Life

The General Content and Practical Orientation of "Shakespearian Politics"

"Shakespearian Politics" Today

A "Shakespearian Politics" beyond Shakespeare?

6. The Radical Implications of Hölderlin's Aesthetic Rationalism

I

II

III

IV

V

7. From Mirror to Catalyst: Whitman and the Literature of Re-Creation

8. The City of Brothers

9. Critical Theory, Sociology, and Science-Fiction Films: Love, Radical Transformation, and the Socio-Logic of Capital

Theorizing Modern Society: Critical Theory, Sociology, and Science Fiction

Sociology and Science Fiction as Responses to Modernity

Critical Theory and the Logic of Capital

Critical Theory, the Problem of Futurity, and Science Fiction as the Genre of the 21st Century

Love and Radical Transformation in Science-Fiction Films.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Dark City (1999)

The Matrix (1999)

Conclusion: Critical Theory of Science Fiction Qua Critique of Social Relations?

Films

10. Magical Marx: Objective Method and Aesthetics

Negations: Sacred and Profane

The Sacred Pure and the Sacred Impure

Magic and Religion

Sacred Sociology

List of Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438477770

1438477775