eBook - PDF

The End of Dissatisfaction?

Name: The End of Dissatisfaction?
Author: Todd McGowan

Jacques Lacan and the Emerging Society of Enjoyment

Todd McGowan,

248 pages
English
PDF
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - PDF

The End of Dissatisfaction?

Jacques Lacan and the Emerging Society of Enjoyment

Todd McGowan,

About this book

Explains why the American cultural obsession with enjoying ourselves actually makes it more difficult to do so.

Winner of the 2004 Gary Olson Award for best book in cultural theory presented by JAC

Exploring the emergence of a societal imperative to enjoy ourselves, Todd McGowan builds on the work of such theorists as Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Zðizûek, Joan Copjec, and Theresa Brennan to argue that we are in the midst of a large-scale transformation-a shift from a society oriented around prohibition (i.e., the notion that one cannot just do as one pleases) to one oriented around enjoyment. McGowan identifies many of the social ills of American culture today as symptoms of this transformation: the sense of disconnection, the increase in aggression and violence, widespread cynicism, political apathy, incivility, and loss of meaning. Discussing these various symptoms, he examines various texts from film, literature, popular culture, and everyday life, including Toni Morrison's Paradise, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and such films as Dead Poets Society and Trigger Effect. Paradoxically, The End of Dissatisfaction? shows how the American cultural obsession with enjoying ourselves actually makes it more difficult to do so.

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Yes, you can access The End of Dissatisfaction? by Todd McGowan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Literary Criticism Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.