Bloomsbury Academic Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen: Myths and Allegories in the Digital Age

Myths such as Narcissus’ reflection, Pandora’s box, and Plato’s cave have been used to frame modern technological dangers; often to describe people absorbed in their own digital reflections. Such speculation either purports that technology has a magical power or else that technology merely represents human nature unchanged from the myth’s inception. But those accounts ignore the paradoxical understandings of the power relationships allegorized, where people are manipulated by higher forces beyond their comprehension. Working from the assumption that capitalism rather than God is the highest power, this book examines mythic anticipations of the screen and digital technology from European literature, poetry, folklore and philosophy. Digital technology and social media are approached not as reflections of human nature but capitalist ideology’s power to enchant. To this end, Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen also surveys a diverse variety of films, digital media and contemporary artworks to understand and critique how myths are reimagined today. Review Aleks Wansbrough’s Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen is a multilayered, highly accessible, discursive and illuminating interdisciplinary critique of late-capitalist entertainment culture beyond the screen. Its rigorous theoretical arguments are quite elegant, sound and persuasive. Aleks’s deft handling of the various engaging ideas, theoretical frameworks and an undeniable self-reflexive understanding of his subject shines through every aspect of the book. But above all, his technological knowledge of the subject is as equally first-rate as is his theoretical command of conducting a lively, refreshing and far-reaching investigation into this topic. --John Conomos, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow at Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, AustraliaCapitalism and the Enchanted Screen is a revealing new study of the way in which digital cultures and their technologies service capitalist imperatives. Wansbrough cleverly approaches our networked lives through the lens of mythic stories and their continuing resonances, discovering that our screens are mesmeric tools par excellence. This is a provocative, important book. --Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor in Film Studies, University of Sydney, Australia About the Author Aleks Wansbrough is a cultural theorist who lectures on art, media and film at the University of Sydney, Australia, as well as Bennett University, India, where he is an adjunct professor. He has contributed articles to popular and academic journals exploring film, contemporary art, philosophy, digital media and neoliberal capitalism. He is an editor of the Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture.