A sense of apocalypse : technology, textuality, identity

142 Pages·2014·3.496 MB·English

by  Mazurek, Marcin

40
Literary and
Reaching into the depths of the collective unconscious, A Sense of
Apocalypse explores and re-interprets one of the West’s primordial Cultural Theory
fears, namely that of the apocalyptic closure of both cultural praxis 37
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and individual experience. Yet, in contrast to popular connotations of HK
the term, apocalypse is viewed here in terms of a transitional narrative
1
locating the subject at the intersection of technological determinism, 9
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pop-cultural imagination, postmodern urbanism and digital textuality. H
All these form the components of a new post-apocalyptic landscape, Marcin Mazurek
which not only produces a new identity informed by dissolving post-
Enlightenment paradigms, but also conjures up hints at a large number
of existential possibilities triggered by late-capitalist technologies and
their cultural consequences.
A Sense
of Apocalypse
Technology, Textuality, Identity
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Marcin Mazurek is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Cul- z
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tures and Literatures at the University of Silesia (Poland). His research M
focuses on postmodern theory, culture-technology relationship and n
visual culture. He is the author of a number of articles in the above- rci
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ISBN 978-3-631-64812-4
LCT 40_264812_Mazurek_AM_HCA5 PLE.indd 1 05.02.14 13:08
A Sense of Apocalypse
LITERARY AND CULTURAL THEORY

General Editor: Wojciech H. Kalaga

VOLUME 40
Marcin Mazurek

A Sense of Apocalypse
Technology, Textuality, Identity
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is
available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mazurek, Marcin, 1972- author.
A Sense of Apocalypse : Technology, Textuality, Identity /
Marcin Mazurek.
pages cm. – (Literary and Cultural Theory ; Volume 40)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-3-631-64812-4
1. Apocalypse in literature. 2. Technology and civilization.
3. Postmodernism. 4. End of the world in literature. I. Title.
PN56.A69M39 2014
809'.93353--dc23
2013050537

This publication was financially supported
by the Faculty of Philology of the University of Silesia.

ISSN 1434-0313
ISBN 978-3-631-64812-4 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-03681-7 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-03681-7
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2014
All rights reserved.
Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH.
Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York ·
Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to
prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in
electronic retrieval systems.
This book is part of the Peter Lang Edition list
and was peer reviewed prior to publication.
www.peterlang.com
The most unusual thing Jimmy had managed
to score on his swing through the archipelago
was a head, an intricately worked bust, clois-
onné over platinum, studded with seedpearls
and lapis. […]
The thing was a computer terminal, he said.
— William Gibson, Neuromancer

Contents
Introduction
The Argument .......................................................................................................9
Chapter One
From Pre-Apocalyptic Tropes to Post-Apocalyptic Metaphors ..........................19
1. Representing the Non-Representable ........................................................19
2. Domesticating the Threat .........................................................................22
3. 9/11 ............................................................................................................25
4. Theorising the End....................................................................................28
5. Science Fiction, Technology, Identity .......................................................32
Chapter Two
The Violence of Revelation.................................................................................39
1. Violence ....................................................................................................39
2. Revelation .................................................................................................49
3. Theory of Apocalypse vs. Apocalypse of Theory ....................................55
Chapter Three
Technology Unbound ..........................................................................................61
1. Technology and the Social ........................................................................61
2. From the Industrial to the Postindustrial ..................................................67
3. Visions and Identities ................................................................................71
4. Maps and Territories .................................................................................76
Chapter Four
Textual Spaces and Spatial Textualities ..............................................................83
1. The Ontology of Terminal Space ..............................................................83
2. Hypertext: Poststructuralist Theory into Terminal Practice ....................90
3. Cityscapes and Cyber-Realms ..................................................................98
Chapter Five
Identity and Its Discontents ..............................................................................107
1. Posthumanism Revisited: Identity on the Move......................................107
2. Posthumanist into Posthuman ..................................................................110
3. Snow Crash: Split Presence and Translucent Bodies ...............................115
4. Terminal Identity as the Third ................................................................123
Conclusion
Apocalypse and the Postmodern .......................................................................127
Bibliography ....................................................................................................131

Introduction
The Argument
Throughout human history, we have been
dependent on machines to survive. Fate,
it seems, is not without a sense of irony.
— Morpheus, The Matrix 1
The overall assumption underlying this book is that of a multi-layered paradigmatic
change in our thinking of technology, the subject, the relationship between the two,
and the ways in which this relationship is represented. The paradigm shift in question,
though largely coinciding with numerous postmodern and poststructuralist postulates,
is primarily concerned with the impact that postindustrial technologies exert upon
experience and, by extension, upon the process of identity formation. This process,
combining cultural theory with cultural praxis, is considered here against the back-
ground of representational and discursive practices it provokes and informs.
Both elements, the rampant development of electronic technologies and the theoretical
reconfiguration of the subject’s premises, not only narrow the distance between theory
and practice but, first of all, force us to redefine and re-interpret a large number of dis-
cursive claims regarding those ideas which play a formative role in the process of identity
construction. This is because one of the most distinctive tones of the discourse in question,
borne out of a peculiar clash of postmodern theory with visual and textual representations,
is the pervasive sense of distrust towards traditional modes of depicting such cornerstones
of identity as space, body, locale, relationship with nature, reliability of the sign and, last
but definitely not least, the status of the real.
The conviction of technology’s fundamental influence is supported by the belief
that contemporary technologies, particularly those of electronic origin, long ago
ceased to function as mere tools whose sole purpose is to facilitate human daily op-
erations. Instead, they have become the very core of both present and future systems,
“allowing for the existence of the social as such.” 2 Not only did those technologies’
ubiquity alter and expand traditional modes of communication, social relationships
and modes of exercising political power, but it also significantly reduced the gap be-
tween the born and the produced. The traditional dichotomy of human vs. technologi-
cal has been vividly challenged and in many cases rendered non-existent. Whether
1. Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, The Matrix, Groucho II Film Partnership/Silver Pictures/
Village Roadshow Pictures, USA, 1999.
2. Mark Hansen, Embodying Technesis. Technology Beyond Writing (Michigan: University of Michi-
gan Press, 2000), 3.