“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2006 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/10451/30178 |
Resumo: | Rushdie writes, “Life is fury. Fury – sexual, Oedipal, political, magical, brutal – drives us to our finest heights and coarsest depths” (20). Does Solanka’s fury, materialised in the web site PlanetGalileo.com, allow for renewed forms of subjectivity, collectivity or globality? Or does it underscore the shortcomings of postcolonial ambiguities in the face of neocolonial power structures? I will try to elucidate these questions by focusing on the representation of the Internet industry in the novel, while aiming to interrogate “whether we should think of the new state of play in the cultural industries, internationally, as a new stage of cultural imperialism, or as a sign of a new global interconnectedness with democratising possibilities” (Hesmondhalgh 10). In other words, the central concern of this paper is to highlight Fury as an exploration of the (un)feasibility of postcolonial strategies of resistance in the context of globalised multinational corporations. Generally speaking, this paper finds inspiration in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s mid-20th century critique of the (American) Culture Industry and will try to chart the intricate, ambivalent and disputed aspects of the cultural industries, in particular the Internet industry. A closer reading of the narrative reveals that it communicates ambivalence, which can translate into subversive ambiguity, in relation to the postcolonial subject’s engagement and apparently easy affiliations with the present neo-imperial order. Indeed, Solanka is concurrently sickened and drawn to the glitzy spectacle of emergent American commodities and dot-com jargon. Against the unfavourable criticism Fury has received, I propose to address the transforming value of Solanka’s fury and the protagonist’s negotiations of current global power structures, based on the presupposition that such an ambivalent narrative unveils the critique, even if at times somewhat subtle, of the democratising rhetoric of cultural globalisation. |
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“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophiliaRushdie, Salman, 1947-..... FuryPostcolonial literaturePostcolonial studiesBritish literatureTechnologyCyberpunkAdorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969Culture industryHorkheimer, Max, 1895-1973Rushdie writes, “Life is fury. Fury – sexual, Oedipal, political, magical, brutal – drives us to our finest heights and coarsest depths” (20). Does Solanka’s fury, materialised in the web site PlanetGalileo.com, allow for renewed forms of subjectivity, collectivity or globality? Or does it underscore the shortcomings of postcolonial ambiguities in the face of neocolonial power structures? I will try to elucidate these questions by focusing on the representation of the Internet industry in the novel, while aiming to interrogate “whether we should think of the new state of play in the cultural industries, internationally, as a new stage of cultural imperialism, or as a sign of a new global interconnectedness with democratising possibilities” (Hesmondhalgh 10). In other words, the central concern of this paper is to highlight Fury as an exploration of the (un)feasibility of postcolonial strategies of resistance in the context of globalised multinational corporations. Generally speaking, this paper finds inspiration in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s mid-20th century critique of the (American) Culture Industry and will try to chart the intricate, ambivalent and disputed aspects of the cultural industries, in particular the Internet industry. A closer reading of the narrative reveals that it communicates ambivalence, which can translate into subversive ambiguity, in relation to the postcolonial subject’s engagement and apparently easy affiliations with the present neo-imperial order. Indeed, Solanka is concurrently sickened and drawn to the glitzy spectacle of emergent American commodities and dot-com jargon. Against the unfavourable criticism Fury has received, I propose to address the transforming value of Solanka’s fury and the protagonist’s negotiations of current global power structures, based on the presupposition that such an ambivalent narrative unveils the critique, even if at times somewhat subtle, of the democratising rhetoric of cultural globalisation.University of CoruñaRepositório da Universidade de LisboaMendes, Ana Cristina2017-12-22T09:09:54Z20062006-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10451/30178engMendes, AC. (2006) “‘A techno state of mind’: Salman Rushdie and technophilia”, Rubén Jarazo Alvarez (org.), Periphery and Centre II. Coruña: University of Coruña, 23-28.84-96474-33-Xmetadata only accessinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-11-08T16:22:48Zoai:repositorio.ul.pt:10451/30178Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T21:45:54.554727Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
title |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
spellingShingle |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia Mendes, Ana Cristina Rushdie, Salman, 1947-..... Fury Postcolonial literature Postcolonial studies British literature Technology Cyberpunk Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969 Culture industry Horkheimer, Max, 1895-1973 |
title_short |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
title_full |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
title_fullStr |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
title_full_unstemmed |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
title_sort |
“A techno state of mind": Salman Rushdie and technophilia |
author |
Mendes, Ana Cristina |
author_facet |
Mendes, Ana Cristina |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv |
Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Mendes, Ana Cristina |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Rushdie, Salman, 1947-..... Fury Postcolonial literature Postcolonial studies British literature Technology Cyberpunk Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969 Culture industry Horkheimer, Max, 1895-1973 |
topic |
Rushdie, Salman, 1947-..... Fury Postcolonial literature Postcolonial studies British literature Technology Cyberpunk Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969 Culture industry Horkheimer, Max, 1895-1973 |
description |
Rushdie writes, “Life is fury. Fury – sexual, Oedipal, political, magical, brutal – drives us to our finest heights and coarsest depths” (20). Does Solanka’s fury, materialised in the web site PlanetGalileo.com, allow for renewed forms of subjectivity, collectivity or globality? Or does it underscore the shortcomings of postcolonial ambiguities in the face of neocolonial power structures? I will try to elucidate these questions by focusing on the representation of the Internet industry in the novel, while aiming to interrogate “whether we should think of the new state of play in the cultural industries, internationally, as a new stage of cultural imperialism, or as a sign of a new global interconnectedness with democratising possibilities” (Hesmondhalgh 10). In other words, the central concern of this paper is to highlight Fury as an exploration of the (un)feasibility of postcolonial strategies of resistance in the context of globalised multinational corporations. Generally speaking, this paper finds inspiration in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s mid-20th century critique of the (American) Culture Industry and will try to chart the intricate, ambivalent and disputed aspects of the cultural industries, in particular the Internet industry. A closer reading of the narrative reveals that it communicates ambivalence, which can translate into subversive ambiguity, in relation to the postcolonial subject’s engagement and apparently easy affiliations with the present neo-imperial order. Indeed, Solanka is concurrently sickened and drawn to the glitzy spectacle of emergent American commodities and dot-com jargon. Against the unfavourable criticism Fury has received, I propose to address the transforming value of Solanka’s fury and the protagonist’s negotiations of current global power structures, based on the presupposition that such an ambivalent narrative unveils the critique, even if at times somewhat subtle, of the democratising rhetoric of cultural globalisation. |
publishDate |
2006 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2006 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z 2017-12-22T09:09:54Z |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
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article |
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publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/10451/30178 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10451/30178 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
Mendes, AC. (2006) “‘A techno state of mind’: Salman Rushdie and technophilia”, Rubén Jarazo Alvarez (org.), Periphery and Centre II. Coruña: University of Coruña, 23-28. 84-96474-33-X |
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metadata only access info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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metadata only access |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
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University of Coruña |
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University of Coruña |
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