Interpassivity
The Aesthetics of Delegated Enjoyment
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Published:17th May '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Why do people record TV programmes instead of watching them? Why are former alcoholics pleased to let other people drink in their place? Why can ritual machines pray in place of believers? Robert Pfaller advances the theory of 'interpassivity' as delegated consumption and enjoyment. Applicable to both art and everyday life, the concept allows him to tackle a vast range of phenomena: culture, art, sports and religion. Pfaller criticises dominant assumptions, offers an escape from prevailing ideologies and exposes how cultural capitalism promotes commodities with the promise of happiness.
New concepts are rare in social thinking, and interpassivity is arguably the only true concept that emerged in the last two decades. The idea that others can not only act for us but that they can also be passive for us, that we can enjoy, believe, laugh and cry through others, provides the key to understand the paradoxes of our cynical-hedonist era. So let’s not beat around the bush: Interpassivity is simply one of the great founding texts of social thought, on a par with works of classics like Max Weber. * Slavoj Žižek *
ISBN: 9781474422925
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
160 pages