The mana of mass society / William Mazzarella.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mazzarella, William, 1969- author.

Series:

Chicago studies in practices of meaning.

Chicago studies in practices of meaning

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mana.

Critical theory.

Anthropology--Philosophy.

Anthropology.

Mass media and anthropology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (251 pages).

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Summary:

We often invoke the “magic” of mass media to describe seductive advertising or charismatic politicians. In The Mana of Mass Society, William Mazzarella asks what happens to social theory if we take that idea seriously. How would it change our understanding of publicity, propaganda, love, and power? Mazzarella reconsiders the concept of “mana,” which served in early anthropology as a troubled bridge between “primitive” ritual and the fascination of mass media. Thinking about mana, Mazzarella shows, means rethinking some of our most fundamental questions: What powers authority? What in us responds to it? Is the mana that animates an Aboriginal ritual the same as the mana that energizes a revolutionary crowd, a consumer public, or an art encounter? At the intersection of anthropology and critical theory, The Mana of Mass Society brings recent conversations around affect, sovereignty, and emergence into creative contact with classic debates on religion, charisma, ideology, and aesthetics.

Contents:

Introduction: a certain rush of energy

The social in the subject. Modern savagery: mana beyond the empiricist settlement

Ecstatic life and social form: collective effervescence and the primitive settlement

The subject in the social. Anxious autonomy: the agony of perfect addressability and the aesthetic settlement

Are you talking to me? Eros and nomos in the mimetic archive.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226436395

022643639X

OCLC:

1233041448