• On the Obsolescence of Bourgeois Theory in the Anthropocene

    Author(s):
    Gary Hall (see profile)
    Date:
    2018
    Group(s):
    Digital Humanists
    Subject(s):
    Subjectivity, Animal rights
    Item Type:
    Blog Post
    Tag(s):
    Bourgeois Novel, McKenzie Wark, nonhuman, climate change, Theory, Posthumanism, Anthropocene, Literary criticism, Environmental humanities
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6SJ19Q5Q
    Abstract:
    ‘On the Obsolescence of Bourgeois Theory in the Anthropocene’ is an attempt to think theory beyond the stereotypes of what it is considered to be. This includes preconceived notions of what it is to be a theorist, and to create, publish and disseminate critical theory. Many thinkers, for example, are currently attempting to replace the tyranny of the human with an emphasis on the nonhuman, the posthuman and the Anthropocene. Yet such ‘post-theory’ theorists continue to remain bound up with the human in the very performance of their attempts to think through and beyond it. Regardless of the anti-humanist philosophies they profess — be they inspired by Deleuze, Kittler or Latour — in their practices, in the forms their work takes, in the ways they create, publish and disseminate it, in their associated upholding of notions of individual human rights, freedom, property and so on, they continue to operate in terms of a liberal, humanist model of what it is to be and do as a theorist. ‘On the Obsolescence of Bourgeois Theory in the Anthropocene’ thus asks, what forms is critical theory to take if, in its performance, it is not to be simply liberal and humanist — nor indeed human — but something else besides? In this way it endeavours to anticipate a future where new roles and conditions for theory materialize that has never previously been imagined.
    Notes:
    'On the Obsolescence of Bourgeois Theory in the Anthropocene' was first published on my Media Gifts blog (http://www.garyhall.info) on June 13, 2018. It is part of my current work in progress for a book with the provisional title of Masked Media: or How To Be Inhuman.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All-Rights-Granted
    Share this:

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf on-the-obsolescence-of-bourgeois-theory-in-the-anthropocene.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 287

    Back to Deposits