Welcome to Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art,

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2016, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (4): 175-184.

• Studies in Aethetics and Culture • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A Techno-Political Poetics Built on the Body: On Brian Massumi's Parables of the Virtual

Yao Yunfan   

  1. the Research Center for Comparative Literature & World Literature, Shanghai Normal University (Shanghai 200234, China)
  • Online:2016-07-25 Published:2017-09-29
  • About author:Yao Yunfan is a lecturer in?the Research Center for Comparative Literature & World Literature, Shanghai Normal University (Shanghai 200234, China), with research interests in contemporary Western literary, cultural and political theories.

Abstract: Centered round his elucidation of the concepts of "body" and "the virtual," Massumi proposes a critique toward the understanding of the process of subjectivization dominated by the symbolic operations in his work Parables of the Virtual: Movement, Affections and Sensations. He assumes that contemporary capitalist power mechanism does not abide by the logic of subjectivization that is mediated by the symbolic order; instead, with help of technology, the capitalist power can control the human-beings by intervening the intensity and direction of human affections. The hope of escaping the control relies on the objectification of human beings during the evolution of technology. Through his examination of the control-escape logic, Massumi claims that contemporary cultural theory becomes both a poetics of technology and a kind of political resistance.

Key words: the virtual, movement, post-human, technology (technique), body