The Network Imaginary in J. G. Ballard's 'Crash'
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21877155 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Calder Gillie (Goldsmiths University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-24 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Excursions Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2055-494X • E-ISSN: 2044-4095 |
| Publisher | University of Sussex (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.20919/exs.8.2018.218 |
| OpenAlex | W2911269324 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
This paper focuses on the representation of the network in J. G. Ballard’s Crash. I investigate the relationship between the car crash and the road network: specifically the political potential of the crash to provide access the exterior of the capitalist road network's regime of 'auto-mobility' (the combination of discourses of autonomy and mobility). My theoretical focus is on Jean Baudrillard’s proposition that ‘there is no exterior’ to postmodern subjectivity. Baudrillard reads Crash as a literary manifestation of surface without exterior. In opposition to this, I explore the possibility that the car crash is an attempt to reach a terrain outside of late capitalism. My conclusion presents an amendment to Baudrillard’s argument. I suggest that if Baudrillard’s analysis is applied to the network it actually describes the impossible promise of the network: absolute connection, a system without exterior. As opposed to something that is already present, I suggest that this is what the crash is trying to reach: crashing is the attempt to go anywhere precluded by the impossible combination of autonomy and mobility
Aesthetics · Autonomy · Crash · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Postmodernism · Proposition · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Subjectivity · The Imaginary · Computer Science · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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