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The topics addressed in these essays range from laissez-faire economics and the state of contemporary culture, to the foundations of ethical philosophy. Commencing with an analysis of the rhetoric of "crisis," Armand poses questions of central concern to the future of criticism and the institutions of knowledge. Focusing upon the role of technology in re-shaping the structures of human experience, language and cultural practice, this collection of essays offers a broad critique of the legacies of modernity and beyond. Adopting the critical paradigm of
solicitation, Armand demonstrates how structure is perceived through an incidence of crisis, and that these crises are pervasive in human experience.
The essays included in this volume address the work of writers, philosophers, artists, as well as broader issues of history, futurity and the digital age. Jacques Derrida, James Joyce, Immanuel Kant, Walter Benjamin, Karl Jaspers are read alongside Buckminster Fuller, Julia Kristeva, Rosalind Krauss, Marshal McLuhan, John Dewey, as well as recent and contemporary artists like John Cage, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Brett Whiteley, Michael Dransfield, John Kinsella.
About the author
Louis Armand is the author of eight novels, including
Breakfast at Midnight and
The Combinations. Selections of his work also appear in the Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry and
Best Australian Poems. In 2009 his screenplay
Clair Obscur received honourable mention at the Trieste International Film Festival. He is presently an editor of the international magazine
VLAK: Contemporary Poetics and the Arts.
