TOWARDS A GENEALOGY OF SPECTACLE
TOWARDS A GENEALOGY OF SPECTACLE
YUNUS TUNCEL
This book is an exploration of contemporary experience of spectacle in its multiple layers, as it attempts to expose the forces that are at work in the making of spectacular events.
The book first makes a heuristic distinction between inner and outer forces of spectacle and later brings them together into genealogically sensible ideas, while reflecting on the problems of spectacular experiences and relations. It sets before itself two goals: to understand the language of spectacle, the signs that it emanates and the affects that it distributes, and to dissect the pathos of spectacle of contemporary society. In an age that is saturated with technology and the products of mass media, it aims to show how and why grand artistic spectacles are needed for the life and health of a culture.
6×9” | B&W | 162 pp
ISBN 978-8792633071
CATEGORY
Theater and Drama
EDITION
Standard paperback 2011 | $19
NOTE
Heuristic pedagogy
REVIEWS
Yunus Tuncel’s Towards a Genealogy of Spectacle is a complex study of the many layers and forces of contemporary spectacles. While the author draws from a stimulating array of sources, such as Kant and Nietzsche to Heidegger and Foucault, he elaborates a position which expands upon some of their theoretical limitations. He is especially critical of Debord for treating mass media as the whole of modern spectacular experience. This line of critique, as well as his overall genealogical investigation of spectacle, is both fascinating and compelling. — APPLE ZEFELIUS YGREK, Foucault Studies, No. 15, pp. 176-179, February 2013.
