| Work in Progress: Curatorial Labor in Twenty-First-Century American Fiction Contributor(s): Jordan, Rieke (Author), Herzogenrath, Bernd (Editor), Pisters, Patricia (Editor) |
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ISBN: 1501347721 ISBN-13: 9781501347726 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic OUR PRICE: $158.40 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Media Studies - Literary Criticism | Modern - 21st Century - Literary Criticism | Comparative Literature |
| Dewey: 813.609 |
| LCCN: 2019007195 |
| Series: Thinking Media |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.4" W x 8.7" (0.90 lbs) 216 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 21st Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Work in Progress: Curatorial Labor in Twenty-First Century American Fiction interrogates contemporary texts that showcase forms of reading practices that feel anachronistic and laborious in times of instantaneity and short buffering times. Objects of analysis include the graphic narrative Building Stories by Chris Ware, the music album Song Reader by the indie rock artist Beck Hansen, and the computer game Kentucky Route Zero by the programming team Cardboard Computer. These texts stage their fragmentary nature and alleged "unfinishedness" as a quintessential part of both their narrative and material modus operandi. These works in and of progress feel both contemporary and retro in the 21st century. They draw upon and work against our expectations of interactive art in the digital age, incorporating and likewise rejecting digital forms and practices. This underlines the material and narrative flexibilities of the objects, for no outcome or reading experience is the same or can be replicated. It becomes apparent that the texts presuppose a reader who invests her spare time in figuring these texts out, diagnosing a contorted work-leisure dichotomy: "working these stories out" is a significant part of the reading experience for the reader-curatorial labor. This conjures up a reader, who, as the author argues, is turned into a curator and creative entity of and in these texts, for she implements and reassembles the options made available. |
Contributor Bio(s): Pisters, Patricia: - Patricia Pisters is Professor of Film Studies at the Department of Media Studies of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and director of the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA). She is one of the founding editors of Necsus: European Journal of Media Studies, program director of the research group Neuroaesthetics and Neurocultures, and co-director of the research group Film and Philosophy. Publications include The Matrix of Visual Culture (2003); Revisiting Normativity with Deleuze (with Rosi Braidotti; 2012) and The Neuro-Image (2012). See for articles, her blog, and other information at www.patriciapisters.com.Herzogenrath, Bernd: - Bernd Herzogenrath is Professor of American Studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. |