Friedrich Kittler’s Aufschreibsystem

This article presents an overview of the work of Friedrich Kittler, tracing the trajectory of his thought over his thirty-year career and locating his work in a contemporary theoretical context, before suggesting ways in which it may be relevant to the field of sf studies. Kittler’s eclectic brand of poststructuralist media theory defies categorization but offers an idiosyncratic version of literary history in which literature is understood to function as part of a more general technocultural matrix or “discourse network.” The article begins by exploring this central conept: according to Kittler, discourse networks operate at the material and technological, as well as the discursive, levels, determining the frameworks of knowledge at any given historical moment. It then goes on to outline Kittler’s investigations into three such networks, each a century apart. While the contrasting textual and media paradigms of 1800 and 1900 are fully explored in his work, that of 2000 appears notably more problematic; this ambivalence about theorizing the contemporary has prevented any effective engagement with the genre of science fiction. The article concludes by suggesting ways that a Kittlerian approach could usefully be applied to sf, mapping out some intriguing affinities between Kittler’s work and recent “historical” modes of sf, particularly Neal Stephenson’s post-steampunk Baroque Cycle novels

Art · Cybernetics and Technology in Society · Digital Media and Philosophy · Philosophy · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction