The Demon of Writing

Powers and Failures of Paperwork

von

Kafka, Ben

TaschenbuchKartoniert, Paperback

184 Seiten

Englisch

Zone Bookserschienen am14.04.2020

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.mehr

Verfügbare Formate

BuchGebunden

EUR36,50

TaschenbuchKartoniert, Paperback

EUR20,00

E-BookPDF2 - DRM Adobe / Web PDFE-Book

EUR20,49

E-BookPDFDRM AdobeE-Book

EUR24,49

Auf dieser Seite:

EUR20,00

In den Warenkorb

Produkt

KlappentextA 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.

Details

ISBN/GTIN978-1-942130-35-2

ProduktartTaschenbuch

EinbandartKartoniert, Paperback

FormatTrade Paperback (USA)

Verlag

Zone Books

Erscheinungsjahr2020

Erscheinungsdatum14.04.2020

Seiten184 Seiten

SpracheEnglisch

MasseBreite 154 mm, Höhe 228 mm, Dicke 17 mm