Theory of the Gimmick - Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form

About the author

Sianne Ngai is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Ugly Feelings and Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, winner of the Modern Language Association’s James Russell Lowell Prize. Her work has been translated into multiple languages.

Summary

Acclaimed critic Sianne Ngai theorizes the gimmick as an aesthetic category reflecting the fundamental laws of capitalism. Gimmicks make promises of saving labor and increasing value that we distrust but also find attractive. Exploring the use of this form, Ngai shows how its aesthetic dissatisfactions reflect deeper anxieties about capitalism.

Product details

• Authors: Sianne Ngai, Ngai Sianne
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2022
• EAN: 9780674278745
• ISBN: 978-0-674-27874-5
• No. of pages: 416
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, ART / Criticism & Theory, Popular philosophy, Philosophy: aesthetics, Literary theory