Explores the intersection of conspiracy theory and theory-as-conspiracy. Theory conspiracy is approached from a number of different critical perspectives. The volume consists of contributions from contemporary theorists who have published extensively on questions of paranoia, conspiracy theory and/or the state of theory today.

Explores the intersection of conspiracy theory and theory-as-conspiracy. Theory conspiracy is approached from a number of different critical perspectives. The volume consists of contributions from contemporary theorists who have published extensively on questions of paranoia, conspiracy theory and/or the state of theory today.

Why does it seem like our everyday life is shadowed by something menacing? This book identifies and illuminates paranoia as a significant feature of contemporary American society and culture. Centering on what it identifies as three key dimensions - power, truth, and identity - in three different contexts - society, literature, and critique - the book explores and explains the increasing influence of paranoid thinking in American society during the second half of the twentieth century and first decades of the twenty-first, a period that has seen the rise of control systems and neoliberal ascendency. Inquiring about the predominance of white, male, American subjects in paranoid culture, Frida Beckman recognizes the antagonistic maintenance and fortification of a conception of the autonomous individual that perceives itself to be under threat. Identifying such paranoia as emerging from an increasingly disjunctive relation between this conception of the subject and the changing nature of the public sphere, she develops the concept of the paranoid chronotope as a tool for the theoretical analysis of social, literary, and critical practices today. Investigating twenty-first century paranoid fictions, New Sincerity novels, conspiracist online culture, and postcritique, Beckman shows how the paranoid chronotope constitutes a recurring feature of modern consciousness.

Starting from Deleuze's brief but influential work on control, the 11 essays in this book focus on the question of how contemporary control mechanisms influence, and are influenced by, cultural expression. They also collectively revaluate Foucault and Deleuze's theories of discipline and control in light of the continued development of biopolitics. Written by an impressive line-up of contemporary scholars of philosophy, politics and culture the essays cover the particularity of control in relation to various fields and modes of expression including literature, cinema, television, music and philosophy.

Why does it seem like our everyday life is shadowed by something menacing? This book identifies and illuminates paranoia as a significant feature of contemporary American society and culture. Centering on what it identifies as three key dimensions - power, truth, and identity - in three different contexts - society, literature, and critique - the book explores and explains the increasing influence of paranoid thinking in American society during the second half of the twentieth century and first decades of the twenty-first, a period that has seen the rise of control systems and neoliberal ascendency. Inquiring about the predominance of white, male, American subjects in paranoid culture, Frida Beckman recognizes the antagonistic maintenance and fortification of a conception of the autonomous individual that perceives itself to be under threat. Identifying such paranoia as emerging from an increasingly disjunctive relation between this conception of the subject and the changing nature of the public sphere, she develops the concept of the paranoid chronotope as a tool for the theoretical analysis of social, literary, and critical practices today. Investigating twenty-first century paranoid fictions, New Sincerity novels, conspiracist online culture, and postcritique, Beckman shows how the paranoid chronotope constitutes a recurring feature of modern consciousness.

Maps out how new developments in 21st-century philosophy intersect with the study of literature This forward-thinking, non-traditional reference work uniquely maps out how new developments in 21st century philosophy are entering into dialogue with the study of literature. Going beyond the familiar methods of analytic philosophy, and with a breadth greater than traditional literary theory, this collection looks at the profound consequences of the interaction between philosophy and literature for questions of ethics, politics, subjectivity, materiality, reality and the nature of the contemporary itself.

Starting from Deleuze's brief but influential work on control, the 11 essays in this book focus on the question of how contemporary control mechanisms influence, and are influenced by, cultural expression. They also collectively revaluate Foucault and Deleuze's theories of discipline and control in light of the continued development of biopolitics. Written by an impressive line-up of contemporary scholars of philosophy, politics and culture the essays cover the particularity of control in relation to various fields and modes of expression including literature, cinema, television, music and philosophy.

Exploring central aspects of the role of sexuality in Deleuze's philosophy For Deleuze, sexuality is a force that can capture as well as liberate life. Its flows tend to be repressed and contained in specific forms at the same time as they retain revolutionary potential. There is immense power in the thousand sexes of desiring-machines and sexuality is seen as a source of becoming. This book gathers prominent Deleuze scholars to explore the restricting and liberating forces of sexuality in relation to a spread of central themes in Deleuze's philosophy, including politics, psychoanalysis, and friendship as well as specific topics such as the body-machine, disability, feminism, and erotics. Key features * the first and only book-length study on sex in Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze, the person and philosopher, was both singular and multifaceted. Frida Beckman traces Deleuze's remarkable intellectual journey, mapping the encounters from which his life and work emerged. She considers how his life and philosophical developments resonate with historical, political and philosophical events, from the Second World War to the student uprisings in the 1960s, the opening of the experimental University of Paris VIII and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although less of a public figure than many of his contemporaries, Deleuze's life and philosophy are bound up with his numerous friendships, collaborations and disputes with several of the period's most influential thinkers, as well as his connections with writers, artists and film scholars. Beckman considers the events, moods and intensities that were generated by this multiplicity of encounters throughout his life. The book follows Deleuze from the salons to which he was invited as a young student through his popularity as a young teacher to the development of the rich phases of his philosophical work.While resisting the idea of 'Deleuzians', the book also reviews a post-Deleuzian legacy and the influence of this extraordinary thinker on contemporary philosophy.

When "revolution" becomes a recurring theme in mainstream culture, where do we look for the tools for a critical engagement with the present? Addressing the link between allegory and cultural critique in contemporary culture and resisting the thematic abstraction of sexy, fast, revolutionary content, this book suggests that one way is to pay attention not so much to content as to form. Culture Control Critique provides an analysis of how representations of political systems in contemporary mainstream culture may be understood not so much by looking at their apparent critical message but by shifting our critical gaze to an underlying and recurring political logic that controls the desire for political change.

When "revolution" becomes a recurring theme in mainstream culture, where do we look for the tools for a critical engagement with the present? Addressing the link between allegory and cultural critique in contemporary culture and resisting the thematic abstraction of sexy, fast, revolutionary content, this book suggests that one way is to pay attention not so much to content as to form. Culture Control Critique provides an analysis of how representations of political systems in contemporary mainstream culture may be understood not so much by looking at their apparent critical message but by shifting our critical gaze to an underlying and recurring political logic that controls the desire for political change.

Exploring central aspects of the role of sexuality in Deleuze's philosophy For Deleuze, sexuality is a force that can capture as well as liberate life. Its flows tend to be repressed and contained in specific forms at the same time as they retain revolutionary potential. There is immense power in the thousand sexes of desiring-machines and sexuality is seen as a source of becoming. This book gathers prominent Deleuze scholars to explore the restricting and liberating forces of sexuality in relation to a spread of central themes in Deleuze's philosophy, including politics, psychoanalysis, and friendship as well as specific topics such as the body-machine, disability, feminism, and erotics. Key features * the first and only book-length study on sex in Deleuze