Kittler and the Media (Theory and Media) - Hardcover

Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745644058 ISBN 13: 9780745644059

Publisher: Polity, 2010

Synopsis

With books such as Discourse Networks and Gramophone, Film, Typewriter and the collection Literature, Media, Information Systems , Friedrich Kittler has established himself as one of the world's most influential media theorists. He is also one of the most controversial and misunderstood. Kittler and the Medi a offers students of media theory an introduction to Kittler's basic ideas. Following an introduction that situates Kittler's work against the tumultuous background of German 20th-century history (from the Second World War and the cultural upheaval of the late 1960s to reunification), the book provides succinct summaries of Kittler's early discourse-analytical work inspired by French post-structuralism, his media-related theorising and his most recent writings on cultural techniques and the notation systems of Ancient Greece. This clear and engaging overview of a fascinating theorist will be welcomed by students and scholars alike of media, communication and cultural studies.In as new condition, no damage, wear and tear or annotations.

About this title

Review

Kittler and the Media is informed, lucid, and entertaining. Winthrop-Young is a world expert writing in both English and German on the work of Friedrich Kittler and I expect this book to become the English-language Virgil for Kittler’s 'selva oscura'. 
John Durham Peters, University of Iowa

The first book-length introduction to one of the most important works in contemporary media theory, this study is also an important step toward readjusting the question of the media in today’s debates. Kittler’s characteristic blend of a Heideggerian history of Being and Nietzschean genealogy is meticulously – and joyfully – retraced; as is, on another level, the outgrowth of this brand of media studies out of the reading of literature. More than all of that, however, Winthrop-Young addresses a certain fascination with technology, the beloved enemy of philosophy and the humanities in the long Twentieth Century (and not the least so in the German tradition).
Rüdiger Campe, Yale University

Witty, concise and insightful, "Kittler and the Media" covers the three major phases of Kittler's career.  Many American scholars may not be familiar with Kittler's recent work on the Greek alphabet,, and this book provides a useful summary.  For those new to Kittler's work, Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, one of the foremost scholars writing on Kittler, gives a brief biographical sketch, contextualizes Kittler's work, and traces connecting threads through the different phases.  Authoritative and deeply thought through, "Kittler and the Media" is essential reading for anyone interested in media theory in its German and international contexts.   

Katherine Hayles, Duke University

About the Author

Geoffrey Winthrop-Young is Professor of German at the University of British Columbia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Polity
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0745644058
• ISBN 13: 9780745644059
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200