Focusing on Kittler's reading of Goethe's `Wanderer's Nightsong' and Pink Floyd's `Brain Damage', the article traces Kittler's development from discourse analysis to media theory. Where more traditional approaches would stress notions of self-reflexivity (both the poem and the song elaborate on their effects and foreground their own construction), Kittler performs, in his own words, a kind of `implosion': The words of Goethe's poem collapse back into the discursive order they evoke, and Pink Floyd's song performs its own technology. But it is precisely this implosion that has an intoxicating effect, which paves the way for a more political, or at least politicized, reading of Kittler's work that highlights his indebtedness to the cultural transgressions of the 1960s.
%0 Journal Article
%1 winthrop-young_implosion_2006
%A Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey
%D 2006
%J Theory, Culture & Society
%K 1960s germany intellectual internalist kittler media-theory
%N 7-8
%P 75--91
%R 10.1177/0263276406069884
%T Implosion and Intoxication: Kittler, a German Classic, and Pink Floyd
%V 23
%X Focusing on Kittler's reading of Goethe's `Wanderer's Nightsong' and Pink Floyd's `Brain Damage', the article traces Kittler's development from discourse analysis to media theory. Where more traditional approaches would stress notions of self-reflexivity (both the poem and the song elaborate on their effects and foreground their own construction), Kittler performs, in his own words, a kind of `implosion': The words of Goethe's poem collapse back into the discursive order they evoke, and Pink Floyd's song performs its own technology. But it is precisely this implosion that has an intoxicating effect, which paves the way for a more political, or at least politicized, reading of Kittler's work that highlights his indebtedness to the cultural transgressions of the 1960s.
@article{winthrop-young_implosion_2006,
abstract = {Focusing on Kittler's reading of Goethe's `Wanderer's Nightsong' and Pink Floyd's `Brain Damage', the article traces Kittler's development from discourse analysis to media theory. Where more traditional approaches would stress notions of self-reflexivity (both the poem and the song elaborate on their effects and foreground their own construction), Kittler performs, in his own words, a kind of `implosion': The words of Goethe's poem collapse back into the discursive order they evoke, and Pink Floyd's song performs its own technology. But it is precisely this implosion that has an intoxicating effect, which paves the way for a more political, or at least politicized, reading of Kittler's work that highlights his indebtedness to the cultural transgressions of the 1960s.},
added-at = {2019-08-29T01:56:31.000+0200},
author = {{Winthrop-Young}, Geoffrey},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2ef0626065d270d0b628ab8a357ffc8ae/jpooley},
doi = {10.1177/0263276406069884},
interhash = {b3863e98c413b2082ec3ca1fb53b26ca},
intrahash = {ef0626065d270d0b628ab8a357ffc8ae},
journal = {Theory, Culture \& Society},
keywords = {1960s germany intellectual internalist kittler media-theory},
month = jan,
number = {7-8},
pages = {75--91},
timestamp = {2019-08-29T01:56:31.000+0200},
title = {Implosion and {{Intoxication}}: {{Kittler}}, a {{German Classic}}, and {{Pink Floyd}}},
volume = 23,
year = 2006
}