Hacking the Society of Control: The Fiction of Hari Kunzru.
The prevailing tendency among critics is to read the fiction of Hari Kunzru through a postcolonial lens, emphasizing either his themes of fluidity and hybridity, or his cosmopolitan resistance to national boundaries. This essay takes a different approach by examining how Kunzru engages notions of po...
| Publicado en: | Critique Vol. 62; no. 5; pp. 620 - 631 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
2021
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=153787574&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 153787574 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 19399138 CTQ jtl: Critique issn: 19399138 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2021 vid: 62 iid: 5 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 153787574 10.1080/00111619.2020.1852157 ppf: 620 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: Hacking the Society of Control: The Fiction of Hari Kunzru. aug: au: Mathews, Peter D. affil: Department of English Language and Literature, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea su: Kunzru, Hari Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940 Schmitt, Carl, 1888-1985 Protagonists (Persons) in literature Hegemony sug: subj: Kunzru, Hari Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940 Schmitt, Carl, 1888-1985 Protagonists (Persons) in literature Hegemony keyword: Carl Schmitt Hari Kunzru political theology Walter Benjamin ab: The prevailing tendency among critics is to read the fiction of Hari Kunzru through a postcolonial lens, emphasizing either his themes of fluidity and hybridity, or his cosmopolitan resistance to national boundaries. This essay takes a different approach by examining how Kunzru engages notions of political theology. Kunzru uses computer programming, for instance, as a metaphor for divine creation, so that in works like Transmission and Gods Without Men his protagonists, both programmers, confront the notion of hacking the divine "code." In Gods Without Men, this process is achieved through a computer program named Walter that is able to predict first the stock market, and then the course of historical events. Walter is named after Walter Benjamin, who argued that a concealed political theology underlies the logic of modern society. Following similar clues in Kunzru's fiction, this essay explores his diagnosis, on the one hand, of political theology's responsibility for the creation of a modern society of control, and the revolutionary potential of being able to subvert and manipulate that divine code, on the other. In a world where the hegemony of modern capitalism feels increasingly stifling, Kunzru offers a means of escape and resistance by turning society's code against itself. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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