Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Media studies
|
Buy Now
The Demon of Writing - Powers and Failures of Paperwork (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R750
Discovery Miles 7 500
|
|
The Demon of Writing - Powers and Failures of Paperwork (Hardcover)
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
Donate to Against Period Poverty
Total price: R770
Discovery Miles: 7 700
|
A history and theory of the powers, the failures, and even the
pleasures of paperwork. Since the middle of the eighteenth century,
political thinkers of all kinds-radical and reactionary,
professional and amateur-have been complaining about "bureaucracy."
But what, exactly, are they complaining about? In The Demon of
Writing, Ben Kafka offers a critical history and theory of one of
the most ubiquitous, least understood forms of media: paperwork.
States rely on records to tax and spend, protect and serve,
discipline and punish. But time and again, this paperwork proves to
be unreliable. Examining episodes that range from the story of a
clerk who lost his job and then his mind in the French Revolution
to an account of Roland Barthes's brief stint as a university
administrator, Kafka reveals the powers, the failures, and even the
pleasures of paperwork. Many of its complexities, he argues, have
been obscured by the comic-paranoid style that characterizes much
of our criticism of bureaucracy. Kafka proposes a new theory of
what Karl Marx called the "bureaucratic medium." Moving from Marx
to Freud, he argues that this theory of paperwork must include both
a theory of praxis and of parapraxis.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.