By Christopher Kocela
Fetishism and Its Discontents argues that post-1960 American fiction makes use of fetishism as a technique for expressing social and political discontent and for negotiating annoying studies. via shut readings of novels and brief tales via Thomas Pynchon, Kathy Acker, Ishmael Reed, John Hawkes, and Tim O'Brien, between others, Christopher Kocela strikes clear of the entrenched, Freudian constructs of fetishism and uncovers a brand new figuring out of the fetish as a parallax item that testifies to sometimes threatening modifications in racial, gender, and sophistication perspectives. the 1st specified research of its style, this publication brings originality and rigor to a culturally well timed topic.
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Extra resources for Fetishism and Its Discontents in Post-1960 American Fiction (American Literature Readings in the 21st Century)
Sample text
Though Pietz devotes relatively little time to discussion of this narrative form, I argue that the first-encounter theory explains how Enlightenment philosophy attempts to internalize and neutralize the problem of parallax inherent to fetishism. Fetish theory, derived from efforts to rationalize the existence of “superstitious” oaths exchanged between European and African trade partners, becomes, in its later Hegelian, Marxian, and Freudian variations, a theoretical fetish oath designed to ward off and conceal the ideological contradictions out of which it arises.
On one hand, Fetissos were testament to the African overvaluation of worthless objects—a feature of African thinking that facilitated fantastic rates of profit for Western merchants who were able to trade trinkets in exchange for gold and other precious metals. com - licensed to Universitetsbiblioteket i Tromso - PalgraveConnect - 2011-03-14 A PARALLAX HISTORY OF FETISH THEORY FETISHISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS economic interests by slowing down or even obstructing trade, as when they became the object of oaths required by Africans for social interaction.
In Pietz’s words: “As a fundamental principle of both individual mentality and social organization, fetish worship was the paradigmatic illustration of what was not enlightenment” (106, original emphasis). Pietz’s emphasis on “individual mentality” and “social organization” illustrates the role played by fetish theory in reinforcing, at an early stage of development, two crucial aspects of Enlightenment thought. The idea of a mind characterized by irrational fetish worship provided a convenient counterpoint to the newly forged Cartesian cogito.
