The Mark of Theory: Inscriptive Figures, Poststructuralist Prehistories
The Mark of Theory: Inscriptive Figures, Poststructuralist Prehistories
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Abstract
What imaginaries, tropes, and media have influenced the way we theorize now? The Mark of Theory argues that inscription constitutes one of the master metaphors of contemporary theory. The book understands inscription as a scene that takes place where and when a material surface is breached and forced to bear marks. As a trope that draws on a wide array of practices of marking, from tattooing to circumcision, from photographic imprints and phonographic grooves to marks on a page, inscription provides an imaginary that orients, governs, and irritates theoretical thought. By tracing inscriptive imaginaries from the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century up to today, The Mark of Theory offers a wide-ranging conceptual genealogy of contemporary thought. With its poststructuralist attention to figurative language and its media studies focus on objects, phenomena, and practices of mediation, this book works through core theoretical formations of poststructuralism, understanding them as a past legacy of a thought to come, as a prehistory of our current moment. By focusing on the ways in which theoretical works express, illustrate, and concretize their conceptual tenets, The Mark of Theory also reflects on the role of materiality and mediation in theory. As a theoretical tropology that takes the medium and materiality of metaphor seriously, it argues that different inscriptive practices and media imaginaries not only shape conceptual thought but that they determine representational politics and ethical choices.
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Front Matter
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Introduction: At the Scene of Inscription
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1
Savage Marks: Subjection and the Specters of Anthropology
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2
Impact Erasure: Psychoanalysis and the Multiplication of Trauma
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3
Stings of Visibility: Picture Theories and Visual Contact
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4
Out of the Groove: Aural Traces and the Mediation of Sound
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Conclusion: Against Inscription?
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End Matter
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