Description
In Brutalism, eminent social and critical theorist Achille Mbembe invokes the architectural aesthetic of brutalism to describe our moment, caught up in the pathos of demolition and production on a planetary scale. Just as brutalist architecture creates an affect of overwhelming weight and destruction, Mbembe contends that contemporary capitalism crushes and dominates all spheres of existence. In our digital, technologically focused era, capitalism has produced a becoming-artificial of humanity and the becoming-human of machines. This blurring of the natural and artificial presents a planetary existential threat in which contemporary society's goal is to precipitate the mutation of the human species into a condition that is at once plastic and synthetic. Mbembe argues that Afro-diasporic thought presents the only solution for breaking the totalizing logic of contemporary capitalism: repairing that which is broken, developing a new planetary consciousness, and reforming a community of humans in solidarity with all living things.
About the Author
Achille Mbembe is Research Professor in History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is author of Necropolitics and Critique of Black Reason and coeditor of Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, all also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"In an argument both elegant and urgent, Achille Mbembe focuses our attention on the African continent, which is not only where the forms of domination and deprivation that increasingly affect the entire globe are most fully deployed but also where the forms of reparation necessary for a future world can be glimpsed." -- Michael Hardt, author of * The Subversive Seventies *
"This is a fantastic translation of a vital text. The poetry, intensity, complexity, and subtlety that we have come to expect from Achille Mbembe's work are all here in Brutalism." -- Laurent Dubois, translator of * Critique of Black Reason *
"Brutalism offers some experimental analyses but is, on the whole, something quite different: a poetico-political vision, or a 'panoramic fresco,' as he promises in the introduction: a suggestive image painted in broad strokes of dark, vital, earthy colours-and accents of hopeful green."
-- Anders Dunke * Modern Times Review *
"This book will be of interest to those working in Africana thought, global development, political theory, and philosophy and, more particularly, to anyone with an interest in ecology, migration, or innovations in technology. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." * Choice *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478020875
Author Achille Mbembe
Format Hardback
Page Count 200
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 544g
About the Author
Achille Mbembe is Research Professor in History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is author of Necropolitics and Critique of Black Reason and coeditor of Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, all also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"In an argument both elegant and urgent, Achille Mbembe focuses our attention on the African continent, which is not only where the forms of domination and deprivation that increasingly affect the entire globe are most fully deployed but also where the forms of reparation necessary for a future world can be glimpsed." -- Michael Hardt, author of * The Subversive Seventies *
"This is a fantastic translation of a vital text. The poetry, intensity, complexity, and subtlety that we have come to expect from Achille Mbembe's work are all here in Brutalism." -- Laurent Dubois, translator of * Critique of Black Reason *
"Brutalism offers some experimental analyses but is, on the whole, something quite different: a poetico-political vision, or a 'panoramic fresco,' as he promises in the introduction: a suggestive image painted in broad strokes of dark, vital, earthy colours-and accents of hopeful green."
-- Anders Dunke * Modern Times Review *
"This book will be of interest to those working in Africana thought, global development, political theory, and philosophy and, more particularly, to anyone with an interest in ecology, migration, or innovations in technology. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." * Choice *
"Mbembe writes rhapsodic, delirious, poetic prose to make difficult, unassailable arguments in this book."
-- Atreyee Majumder * Philosophy in Review *Book Information
ISBN 9781478020875
Author Achille Mbembe
Format Hardback
Page Count 200
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 544g
