The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802 The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer Experience and Marketing Communications of Technological Products and Services Margo Buchanan-Oliver, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Angela Cruz , The University of Auckland, New Zealand Frontiers of thought in other disciplines, popular culture, and marketing communications are continually ‘re-visioning’ technology and influencing how consumers think about and experience technology-based products and services. Providing a glimpse into these frontiers, this paper re-introduces the body into theorisations of consumer-technology interaction and reviews interdisciplinary discourses shaping views of the body and technology. The key theoretical discourses of body-machine liminality, control and freedom, embodied interaction, and identity are discussed. These discourses expand conceptualisations of technology beyond a limiting focus on functional benefits, offering new frames and foundations for investigating consumer experience and marketing communications of technology-based offerings. [to cite]: Margo Buchanan-Oliver and Angela Cruz (2009) ,"The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer Experience and Marketing Communications of Technological Products and Services", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 367-371. [url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14183/volumes/v36/NA-36 [copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer Experience and Marketing Communications of Technological Products and Services Margo Buchanan-Oliver, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Angela Cruz, The University of Auckland, New Zealand ABSTRACT Conversations around these issues have circulated in other Frontiers of thought in other disciplines, popular culture, and academic disciplines, popular imagination, and in marketing marketing communications are continually ‘re-visioning’ technology communications viz. Apple’s classic ‘1984’ advertisement (Scott and influencing how consumers think about and experience 1991). Ericsson’s ‘Designer Technology’ print campaign (Schroeder technology-based products and services. Providing a glimpse into and Dobers 2006), Sony’s print campaign for the Memory StickTM these frontiers, this paper re-introduces the body into theorisations (Venkatesh, Karababa, and Ger 2002), and Nike Lab’s ‘Les Jumelles’ of consumer-technology interaction and reviews interdisciplinary and ‘Eye(D)’ (Campbell, O’Driscoll, and Saren 2006) television discourses shaping views of the body and technology. The key commercials (TVC) have recently been analysed as exemplifying theoretical discourses of body-machine liminality, control and the merger of the body with technology. freedom, embodied interaction, and identity are discussed. These These explorations have emerged from a visual cultural discourses expand conceptualisations of technology beyond a approach in marketing communications research. Schroeder and limiting focus on functional benefits, offering new frames and Dobers (2006), for instance, illustrate how visual rhetoric is used in foundations for investigating consumer experience and marketing a range of print advertisements to represent information technologies communications of technology-based offerings. in increasingly corporeal ways, using the body as a means of anthropomorphising abstract technologies and rendering them INTRODUCTION familiar and accessible. Campbell et al. (2006) have presented a How do consumers understand and experience technology? brief typology of visual tropes used to represent the posthuman How do marketers and advertisers communicate these experiences technologised body, as exemplified in Nike’s TVC ‘Les Jumelles’. in a compelling way? In addressing these issues, present theorisations However, understanding visual rhetoric per se, while insightful, of consumer-technology interaction in marketing literature offer a requires contextualisation within existing discourses which inform narrow perspective, with a lack of attention to the body restricting the construction and interpretation of specific tropes. As Arnould the focus of marketing theory to the functional benefits of technology. and Thompson (2005, p. 869) note, these “manifestations of Underlying this pervasive disembodiment of the consumer is consumer culture are constituted, sustained, transformed, and shaped an assumed Cartesian dualism which not only separates the mind by broader historical forces (such as cultural narratives, myths, and from the body but also privileges the former over the latter. Such ideologies).” These discourses therefore provide a discursive context dualism is evident, for instance, in the assumption of a simple to ideologies articulated in consumer narratives around technology dichotomy between the online self and the physical self in explaining (Kozinets 2008). Conversely, as these discourses are largely consumers’ construction of online identities (Schau and Gilly implicated in the social construction of shared cultural meanings, 2003). However, this Cartesian dualism underlying dominant understanding these discourses also enhances understanding of the conceptions of the self in consumer research is profoundly unsettled wider psychological and socio-cultural implications of such by consumers’ interaction with increasingly ubiquitous technologies. representations in marketing communications. These can be linked Today, there is a proliferation of mechanical, digital, and biomedical to emerging works (Venkatesh et al. 2002; Giesler 2004; Giesler technologies which not only allow consumers to transform and and Venkatesh 2005) exploring the notion of ‘posthuman consumer communicate their bodies across time and space (e.g. avatars in culture’ as a theoretical lens for consumer research. Thus, an immersive virtual environments such as Second Life), transport awareness and understanding of these conversations about the body themselves beyond their immediate physical location (e.g. cell and technology frames not only visual rhetoric in marketing phones), but also increasingly merge with and enter consumers’ communications involving the body and technology, but also bodies in a more literal sense (e.g. pacemakers). Thus, such consumers’ phenomenological experience of technology. Clearly, interactions are destabilising the traditional mapping of the individual these are fundamental discourses which marketing theory cannot self onto a single biological body. afford to ignore. In addition, rather than a natural, pre-determined, and discretely- bounded entity, the body is increasingly revealed as a malleable and METHODOLOGY porous construction. Not only does the body function as a site for To uncover and clarify these discourses, key conceptual and multiple, shifting layers of cultural meaning (Schroeder and Dobers philosophical texts were selected based on their salience for lensing 2006), but its actual materiality is similarly elastic. Featherstone consumers’ embodied experience of technology. These were sourced (2000), for instance, sees body modification ranging from simple through keyword searches in online ACR proceedings and the ABI/ prosthetic devices to enhance body motor and sensory functions Inform database, and informed by the authors’ backgrounds in (e.g. spectacles), to the building of technological environments semiotics, literary theory, postmodern theory, and film, television, around the body, to the incorporation of technology into the body. and media studies, with further scans conducted through reference These interactions reveal a complex negotiation occurring in the lists and Google Scholar. These key works encompassed a range of boundary between the body and technology than is initially apparent disciplines including cybernetics, cognitive neuropsychology, media through a Cartesian-framed first glance. In essence, the ubiquity of studies, cultural studies and critical theory. machines and the diversity of consumers’ interactions with them A theoretical discourse analysis methodology guided the are dramatically dissolving the boundaries between the body and induction of discursive categories and related sub-themes from technology and raising fundamental questions about what it means these sources. From each text, main concepts and key themes were to be and to have a body, and what it means to be human, in an identified, which were then categorised into broader themes based environment saturated with technology. on perceived commonalities and linkages. A process of iteration 367 Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, © 2009 368 / The Body and Technology: Discourses Shaping Consumer Experience and Marketing between the emerging discursive categories and the source texts cybernetics and artificial life also illustrate the increasing divest- permitted the development of provisional categories, constructs, ment of human agency onto machines. and conceptual connections for subsequent exploration, thereby Liminality of form is also referenced in the increased plasticity aiding the induction of broader, underlying themes from these of a biological body in its
Recommended publications
  • The Dialectic of Freedom 1St Edition Pdf Free Download
    THE DIALECTIC OF FREEDOM 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Maxine Greene | 9780807728970 | | | | | The Dialectic of Freedom 1st edition PDF Book She examines the ways in which the disenfranchised have historically understood and acted on their freedom—or lack of it—in dealing with perceived and real obstacles to expression and empowerment. It offers readers a critical opportunity to reflect on our continuing ideological struggles by examining popular books that have made a difference in educational discourse. Professors: Request an Exam Copy. Major works. Max Horkheimer Theodor W. The latter democratically makes everyone equally into listeners, in order to expose them in authoritarian fashion to the same programs put out by different stations. American Paradox American Quest. Instead the conscious decision of the managing directors executes as results which are more obligatory than the blindest price-mechanisms the old law of value and hence the destiny of capitalism. Forgot your password? There have been two English translations: the first by John Cumming New York: Herder and Herder , ; and a more recent translation, based on the definitive text from Horkheimer's collected works, by Edmund Jephcott Stanford: Stanford University Press, Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Peter Lang. The truth that they are nothing but business is used as an ideology to legitimize the trash they intentionally produce. Archetypal literary criticism New historicism Technocriticism. The author concludes with suggestions for approaches to teaching and learning that can provoke both educators and students to take initiatives, to transcend limits, and to pursue freedom—not in solitude, but in reciprocity with others, not in privacy, but in a public space.
    [Show full text]
  • Generic Affinities, Posthumanisms and Science-Fictional Imaginings
    GENERIC AFFINITIES, POSTHUMANISMS, SCIENCE-FICTIONAL IMAGININGS SPECULATIVE MATTER: GENERIC AFFINITIES, POSTHUMANISMS AND SCIENCE-FICTIONAL IMAGININGS By LAURA M. WIEBE, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Laura Wiebe, October 2012 McMaster University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2012) Hamilton, Ontario (English and Cultural Studies) TITLE: Speculative Matter: Generic Affinities, Posthumanisms and Science-Fictional Imaginings AUTHOR: Laura Wiebe, B.A. (University of Waterloo), M.A. (Brock University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Anne Savage NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 277 ii ABSTRACT Amidst the technoscientific ubiquity of the contemporary West (or global North), science fiction has come to seem the most current of genres, the narrative form best equipped to comment on and work through the social, political and ethical quandaries of rapid technoscientific development and the ways in which this development challenges conventional understandings of human identity and rationality. By this framing, the continuing popularity of stories about paranormal phenomena and supernatural entities – on mainstream television, or in print genres such as urban fantasy and paranormal romance – may seem to be a regressive reaction against the authority of and experience of living in technoscientific modernity. Nevertheless, the boundaries of science fiction, as with any genre, are relational rather than fixed, and critical engagements with Western/Northern technoscientific knowledge and practice and modern human identity and being may be found not just in science fiction “proper,” or in the scholarly field of science and technology studies, but also in the related genres of fantasy and paranormal romance.
    [Show full text]
  • Postcolonialism
    10 Postcolonialism The final hour of colonialism has struck, and millions of inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and Latin America rise to meet a new life and demand their unrestricted right to self-determination. Che Guevara, speech to the United Nations, December 11, 1964 he 1960s saw a revolutionary change in literary theory. Until this dec- Tade, New Criticism dominated literary theory and criticism, with its insistence that “the” one correct interpretation of a text could be discovered if critical readers follow the prescribed methodology asserted by the New Critics. Positing an autonomous text, New Critics paid little attention to a text’s historical context or to the feelings, beliefs, and ideas of a text’s read- ers. For New Critics, a text’s meaning is inextricably bound to ambiguity, irony, and paradox found within the structure of the text itself. By analyzing the text alone, New Critics believe that an astute critic can identify a text’s central paradox and explain how the text ultimately resolves that paradox while also supporting the text’s overarching theme. Into this seemingly self-assured system of hermeneutics marches philos- opher and literary critic Jacques Derrida along with similar-thinking scholar- critics in the late 1960s. Unlike the New Critics, Derrida, the chief spokesperson for deconstruction, disputes a text’s objective existence. Denying that a text is an autotelic artifact, he challenges the accepted definitions and assump- tions of both the reading and the writing processes. In addition, he insists on questioning what parts not only the text but also the reader and the author play in the interpretive process.
    [Show full text]
  • INFORMATION to USERS the Most Advanced Technology Has Been
    INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo­ graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the original text directly from the copy submitted. Thus, some dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from a computer printer. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there sp’e missing pagSb, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyrighted material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re­ produced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is available as one exposure on a standard 35 mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and white photographic print for an additional charge. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. 35 mm slides or 6 " X 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Accessing theUMI World's Information since 1938 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA Order Number 8822869 The criticism of American literature: The powers and limits of an institutional practice Kayes, Jamie R. Barlowe, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1988 Copyright ©1988 by Kayes, Jamie R. Barlowe. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 PLEASE NOTE: In ail cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Relationship Between Architecture and the Environment While Applying Jacque Derrida's Idea of Binary Opposition
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1-1-2005 The relationship between architecture and the environment while applying Jacque Derrida's idea of binary opposition Macy Man-Sai Leung Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Recommended Citation Leung, Macy Man-Sai, "The relationship between architecture and the environment while applying Jacque Derrida's idea of binary opposition" (2005). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 19156. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/19156 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The relationship between architecture and the environment while applying Jacque Derrida's idea of binary opposition by Macy Man-Sai Leung A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE Major: Architecture Program of Study Committee: Marwan Ghandour, Major Professor Tom Leslie Lee Poague Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2005 11 Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the master's thesis of Macy Man-Sai Leung has met the thesis requirements of Iowa State University Signatures have been redacted for privacy Ill TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2. DERRIDA'S DECONSTRUCTION AND ITS APPLICATION IN ARCHITECTURE 6 General Overview of Deconstruction Theory 7 Deconstruction in Architecture 10 CHAPTER 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Difference, Animal Difference: Derrida and Difference
    H Y P A 1032 Dispatch: 18.2.09 Journal: HYPA CE: Nikhil Journal Name Manuscript No. B Author Received: No. of pages: 23 Op: Sumesh 1 Sexual Difference, Animal Difference: 2 3 Derrida and Difference ‘‘Worthy of its 4 5 Name’’ 6 7 8 KELLY OLIVER 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 I challenge the age-old binary opposition between human and animal, not as philos- 16 ophers sometimes do by claiming that humans are also animals, or that animals are 17 capable of suffering or intelligence, but rather by questioning the very category of ‘‘the 18 animal’’ itself. This category groups a nearly infinite variety of living beings into one 19 concept measured in terms of humans—animals are those creatures that are not 20 human. In addition, I argue that the binary opposition between human and animal is 21 intimately linked to the binary opposition between man and woman. Furthermore, I 22 suggest that thinking through animal differences or differences among various living 23 creatures opens up the possibility of thinking beyond the dualist notion of sexual 24 difference and enables thinking toward a multiplicity of sexual differences. 25 26 27 28 Reading the history of philosophy, feminists have pointed out that ‘‘female,’’ 29 ‘‘woman,’’ and ‘‘femininity’’ often fall on the side of the animal in the human– 30 animal divide, as the frequent generic use of the word ‘‘man’’ suggests. From 31 Plato through Hegel, Freud and beyond, women have been associated with 32 Nature and instincts to procreate, which place them in the vicinity of the an- 33 imal realm.
    [Show full text]
  • The Frankfurt School Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Freely Available at The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/frankfur/ Claudio Corradetti The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory The Frankfurt School, also known as the Institute of Social Research ( Institut für Sozialforschung ), is a social and political philosophical movement of thought located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is the original source of what is known as Critical Theory . The Institute was founded, thanks to a donation by Felix Weil in 1923, with the aim of developing Marxist studies in Germany. The Institute eventually generated a specific school of thought after 1933 when the Nazis forced it to close and move to the United States, where it found hospitality at Columbia University, New York. The academic influence of the “critical” method is far reaching in terms of educational institutions in which such tradition is taught and in terms of the problems it addresses. Some of its core issues involve the critique of modernities and of capitalist society, the definition of social emancipation and the perceived pathologies of society. Critical theory provides a specific interpretation of Marxist philosophy and reinterprets some of its central economic and political notions such as commodification, reification, fetishization and critique of mass culture. Some of the most prominent figures of the first generation of Critical Theorists are Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), Friedrich Pollock (1894-1970), Leo Lowenthal (1900-1993), Eric Fromm (1900-1980). Since the 1970s, the second generation has been led by Jürgen Habermas who has greatly contributed to fostering the dialogue between the so called “continental” and “analytical” tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Deconstruction to Binary Oppositions of Postcolonialism Through the Characterizations of Black Maid and White Mistress in Stockett’S the Help
    PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI DECONSTRUCTION TO BINARY OPPOSITIONS OF POSTCOLONIALISM THROUGH THE CHARACTERIZATIONS OF BLACK MAID AND WHITE MISTRESS IN STOCKETT’S THE HELP AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By INDIWARA PANDU WIDYANINGRUM Student Number: 144214130 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2018 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI DECONSTRUCTION TO BINARY OPPOSITIONS OF POSTCOLONIALISM THROUGH THE CHARACTERIZATIONS OF BLACK MAID AND WHITE MISTRESS IN STOCKETT’S THE HELP AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By INDIWARA PANDU WIDYANINGRUM Student Number: 144214130 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2018 ii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI When people are determined, they can overcome everything. -Nelson Mandela- You are my strength when I am weak You are the treasure that I seek You are my all in all . -Nicole Nordeman- vii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI For My Beloved Parents, I Present This for you . viii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to dedicate my deepest gratitude to God for His blessings, I can finish this research. However, only with His unconditional love I can still keep going on. I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Gabriel Fajar Sasmita Aji, M.Hum. for guiding and helping me to conduct this research.
    [Show full text]
  • Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal the Criterion: an International Journal in English Vol
    AboutUs: http://www.the-criterion.com/about/ Archive: http://www.the-criterion.com/archive/ ContactUs: http://www.the-criterion.com/contact/ EditorialBoard: http://www.the-criterion.com/editorial-board/ Submission: http://www.the-criterion.com/submission/ FAQ: http://www.the-criterion.com/fa/ ISSN 2278-9529 Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal www.galaxyimrj.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 11, Issue-VI, December 2020 ISSN: 0976-8165 Post-Dualism and its Practices in 21st Century Raghabendra Garai Former Guest Lecturer of English, Bikramjeet Goswami Memorial College, Garhjoypur, Purulia. Article History: Submitted-10/11/2020, Revised-23/12/2020, Accepted-24/12/2020, Published-31/12/2020. Abstract: This paper aims to study and illustrate how Post-Dualism and its practices in 21st century play a significant role in Post-humanism and facilitate to understand Literature, Society, Culture, Gender, Race, Cyborg etc. spontaneously for flourishing a spectacularly Unassailable life. This approach is growing within us that helps to change completely the course of civilization and society. Post- Dualism is the souls-selves that deconstruct the rigid dichotomies of ‘Human and Non-human’, ‘Human and Sub-Human’, ‘Human and Machine’, ‘Male and Female’, ‘Black and White’ etc. with the key engine of Modern technology. Practically ‘Post-Humanism’ and ‘Post- Anthropocentrism’ have conceded the approach ‘Dualism’, it unveils, Human is not mere sole but is numerous, Humans are different from other Humans or Sub-humans. It also shows how it is related with Anthropocentrism and Transhumanisms and reflected through Charles Darwin’s “Theory of Adaptation”, Jacques Derrida’s “Deconstruction Theory”, Sigmund Freud’s “Drive Theory” and the thinker Thomas Hubl’s ‘The Trauma of Technology’.
    [Show full text]
  • Binary Oppositions As the Result of Deconstruction Analysis in the Goldfinch Novel by Donna Tartt
    BINARY OPPOSITIONS AS THE RESULT OF DECONSTRUCTION ANALYSIS IN THE GOLDFINCH NOVEL BY DONNA TARTT Cheristine Aprilia1 English Department, Putera Batam University, Batam, Kepri, Indonesia [email protected] Tomi Arianto2 English Department, Putera Batam University, Batam, Kepri, Indonesia [email protected] Abstract This research is aimed to analysed the binary opposition in the ―The Goldfinch‖ novel by Donna Tartt. The problem that analysed in this research focused on binary opposition of major character in the novel. The approach to analysing binary opposition used Derrida's concept, namely the theory of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida which is categorised as a poststructuralist approach. Deconstruction theory is understood as a theory that dismantles existing general views. The concept of binary opposition is directed to analyze the difference between two things which are considered to produce a new perspective and can be accepted by many people. The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive method, namely the author described and analysed existing data. The data is from the quotation of the novel. The result of the research is there are five binary oppositions, they are good – bad, valuable – worthless, honest – dishonest, caring – ignorant, and crowded – silent. The binary oppositions are found in the characters of the story. The characters in the story represent some of the characters of other people in the real world. People's perceptions about certain human characteristics can be explored deeper and have opposite sides. Keywords: Binary Opposition, Deconstruction, Post-Structuralism 1. INTRODUCTION Each literary work has its own also be made based on the author's language style and approach.
    [Show full text]
  • Cornel West, “Frederic Jameson's Marxist
    Cornel West, “Frederic Jameson’s Marxist Hermeneutics,” boundary 2 11 (1) (1982), 177-200.* Fredric Jameson is the most challenging American Marxist hermeneutical thinker on the present scene. His ingenious interpretations (prior to accessible translations) of major figures of the Frankfurt School, Russian formalism, French structuralism and poststructuralism as well as of Georg Lukàcs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Althusser, Max Weber and Louis Marin are significant contributions to the intellectual history of twentieth century Marxist and European thought. Jameson's treatments of the development of the novel, the Surrealist movement, of Continental writers such as Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Alessandro Manzoni, and Robbe Grillet, and of American writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Kenneth Burke and Ursula LeGuin, constitute powerful political readings. Furthermore, his adamantly anti-philosophical form of Marxist hermeneutics puts forward an American Aufhebung of poststructuralism which merits close scrutiny. In this essay I shall highlight Jameson's impressive intellectual achievements, specific theoretical flaws, and particular political shortcomings by focusing on the philosophical concerns and ideological aims in his trilogy.1 Jameson is first and foremost a loyal, though critical, disciple of * Note: I would like to extend my gratitude to Jonathan Arac, Stanley Aronowitz, Paul Bové, Fredric Jameson, David Langston, Michael Sprinker and Anders Stephanson for their incisive comments and criticisms of an earlier version of this essay.
    [Show full text]
  • Using a Critical Pedagogy Approach for Peacemaking with "Terrorists" Steven Best University of Texas at El Paso
    Chapman University Chapman University Digital Commons Education Faculty Articles and Research College of Educational Studies 11-2007 Revolutionary Peacemaking: Using a Critical Pedagogy Approach for Peacemaking with "Terrorists" Steven Best University of Texas at El Paso Peter McLaren Chapman University, [email protected] Anthony J. Nocella II State University of New York Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education_articles Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Best, S., McLaren, P., & Nocella, A. J. II. (2007, Nov.) Revolutionary peacemaking: Using a critical pedagogy approach for peacemaking with "terrorists." Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 5(2). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Educational Studies at Chapman University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Education Faculty Articles and Research by an authorized administrator of Chapman University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Revolutionary Peacemaking: Using a Critical Pedagogy Approach for Peacemaking with "Terrorists" Comments This article was originally published in Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, volume 5, issue 2, in 2007. Reprinted in One Paradigm, Many Worlds: Approches to Conflict Resolution across the Disciplines. Edited by Mitch Rosenwald (2008). Cambridge Scholars Press: Newcastle, England. Copyright Institute for Education Policy Studies This article is available at Chapman University
    [Show full text]