Neoliberalism, Affect and Twenty-First-Century Culture.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parker, Holly.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2026.

Summary:

Neoliberalism, Affect, and Twenty-First-Century Culture draws connections accross contemporary culture, neoliberalism and affect to address representations of the self-management of emotions in the workplace, in the personal sphere and in relation to aesthetic experiences such as sports and the arts.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction: 'It's the Economy, Stupid!'

A brief history of neoliberalism

Neoliberalism and the everyday

We live in precarious times

Neoliberalism in a digital age

Affect theory

Affects in context

The chapters

Part I: Genre

Chapter 1: From satire to utopia: Political writing after neoliberalism

Prologue: The fear of utopia and the rise of satire in the Cold War

The politics of utopia: Fredric Jameson and the triumph of neoliberalism

The politics of satire: Social critique or cynical complacency?

The object of attack: From reactionary to progressive neoliberalism

The crisis of neoliberalism: Satire, utopia and the search for alternatives

Epilogue: Towards a new structure of feeling

Chapter 2: The neoliberal child: Performance, productivity and play in contemporary children's literature

Introduction: The emotional marketplace of the neoliberal child

Theorizing the neoliberal child

Performance and affective resilience in Wonder

Productivity and self-discipline in The Secret School

Conformity, surveillance and the erasure of emotion in The Giver

Conclusion: Feeling otherwise - children's literature as affective intervention

Chapter 3: Affective impingements in Nina Cristante's The Richest Man in Babylon (2024) and Ilona Sagar's Correspondence O (2018)

Neoliberalism in art discourse

Revisiting affect: A Massumi/Anderson cocktail

The parable of The Richest Man in Babylon

Machinic incorporeality in Correspondence O

Part II: Emotional management

Chapter 4: The Hyper-Professional Sports Hero in the work of David Foster Wallace

Blindness and dumbness

No outside

The no-play zone

Affectless tennis

Conclusion.

Chapter 5: Navigating emotional self-management in Sally Rooney's Normal People (2018)

Individualism

Synopsis

Neoliberal guilt

Depression and anxiety

Love in the age of discontent

Conclusion

Chapter 6: Severance (2022-): Neoliberal affect, the split subject and Marcuse's one-dimensional society

The Break Room: Confession and discipline

The Wellness Centre: False needs as therapy

The Perpetuity Wing: False needs as reverence

The happy consciousness: Domination as fulfilment

Happy consciousness, ritualized indulgence and food as false needs

'We're People, Not Parts of People': Severance and the Great Refusal

Dylan's sacrifice: Solidarity as the Great Refusal

Part III: Counter-cultures

Chapter 7: Freedom and its discontents: Outlaw entrepreneurship and affective strain in Sons of Anarchy (2008-14) and Breaking Bad (2008-13)

Sons of Anarchy: The business of outlaw biker clubs

Breaking Bad: Walter White's capitalist transformation

The paradox of neoliberal outlaw entrepreneurship

Chapter 8: Neoliberal ideologies in the neon lights: Identity capitalization and community commodification in the Yakuza series (2005-16)

Like a dragon, like a gig worker: Neoliberal affects in the Yakuza lore

Rubble and revenue: Kamurochō's neoliberal dystopia

The last Yakuza: Traditional bonds in the age of emotional labour

Kamurochō's neon affects: Hostess clubs and emotional labour

Part IV: Online

Chapter 9: Self(ie)-care: Cruel optimism in recent literary depictions of the internet influencer

The novels

Affect presented versus affect actually experienced

Selfie-care as individual, and individualistic

Neoliberalism and postfeminism

Cruel Optimism

Notes from the Text.

Chapter 10: On living online: Affective self-help and lifestyle communities on YouTube

Affects and affective economies

Self-Help in the age of neoliberalism

Self-help vlogs as digital autobiography/life narratives

The aesthetics and affects of lifestyle media

Authenticity and online affective communities

Index

Contributors.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

979-82-16-37254-7

OCLC:

1591756191