Out of Sync & Out of Work
214 pages, 6 x 9
5 color, 25 b-w
Paperback
Release Date:27 Jun 2018
ISBN:9780813597119
Hardcover
Release Date:27 Jun 2018
ISBN:9780813597126
Out of Sync & Out of Work
History and the Obsolescence of Labor in Contemporary Culture
By Joel Burges
Rutgers University Press
Out of Sync & Out of Work explores the representation of obsolescence, particularly of labor, in film and literature during a historical moment in which automation has intensified in capitalist economies. Joel Burges analyzes texts such as The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wreck-It Ralph, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Iron Council, and examines their “means” of production. Those means include a range of subjects and narrative techniques, including the “residual means” of including classic film stills in a text, the “obstinate means” of depicting machine breaking, the “dated means” of employing the largely defunct technique of stop-motion animation, and the “obsolete” means of celebrating a labor strike. In every case, the novels and films that Burges scrutinizes call on these means to activate the reader’s/viewer’s awareness of historical time. Out of Sync & Out of Work advances its readers’ grasp of the complexities of historical time in contemporary culture, moving the study of temporality forward in film and media studies, literary studies, critical theory, and cultural critique.
Out of Sync & Out of Work is original, engrossing, remarkably timely, and consistently characterized by careful scholarship and convincing readings. It is a masterful work that demonstrates the power of contemporary cultural forms to reactivate readers’ sense of history as a political medium.
A compelling account of an economic system that has proven itself more and more willing to allow workers to 'fall into history' by rendering their labor obsolete, the book masterfully illuminates the present and its prehistory. More than this, however, it is a persuasive and vivid manifesto for the work culture itself does, one that revivifies our sense that the labor of the cultural critic, at least, is more urgent than ever.
Chronicle of Higher Education weekly book list,' by Nina C. Ayoub
Books & Recordings' mention of Out of Sync and Out of Work in Rochester Review
Out of Sync Out of Work is original, engrossing, remarkably timely, and consistently characterized by careful scholarship and convincing readings. It is a masterful work that demonstrates the power of contemporary cultural forms to reactivate readers’ sense of history as a political medium.
A compelling account of an economic system that has proven itself more and more willing to allow workers to 'fall into history' by rendering their labor obsolete, the book masterfully illuminates the present and its prehistory. More than this, however, it is a persuasive and vivid manifesto for the work culture itself does, one that revivifies our sense that the labor of the cultural critic, at least, is more urgent than ever.
Chronicle of Higher Education weekly book list,' by Nina C. Ayoub
Books Recordings' mention of Out of Sync and Out of Work in Rochester Review
JOEL BURGES is an assistant professor of English and of visual and cultural studies at the University of Rochester in New York. He is coeditor of Time: A Vocabulary of the Present.
Introduction: Falling into History
1 Culture by Outmoded Means
2 Reading by Residual Means
3 Narrative by Obstinate Means
4 Cinema by Dated Means
5 Politics by Obsolete Means
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
1 Culture by Outmoded Means
2 Reading by Residual Means
3 Narrative by Obstinate Means
4 Cinema by Dated Means
5 Politics by Obsolete Means
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
