Alienation and the Carnivalization of Society [Hardcover]

This book examines alienation from both a sociological and psychoanalytic perspective, revisiting classic treatments of the topic (Marx, Simmel, Weber) and exploring its relevance to understanding post-modern consumer society. It examines the escapist potentials for good and for ill in modern society - those fostered by commercial interests, and those maintained by individuals and groups as their form of resisting alienation.

Section 1: Alienation in Modern Mass Society: Its Consequences in Producing Post-Modernity That Is Increasingly Similar to Pre-Modernity  1. The Rise of the Nazis as an Example of Sadistic Carnival  Jerome Braun  2. Democracy and the Dilemmas of Nation-Building  Jerome Braun  3. The Gap Between the Ideal and the Real in Politics: A Comparative Perspective  Jerome Braun  4. The Increasing Similarities Between Post-Modernity and Pre-Modernity  Jerome Braun  Section 2: The Carnivalization of Society  5. Alienation, Entrapment and Inauthenticity: Carnival to the Rescue  Lauren Langman  6. Carnivalization and Freedom: A Shortcut to the Overcoming of Alienation  Kathleen Pacyna  7. Theorizing Carnival: Mardi Gras as Perceived, Conceived, and Lived Space  Kevin Fox Gotham  8. Authoritarianism and Carnivalization in the 2008 Presidential Election and the Return of Right-Wing Populism  George N. Lundskow  9. The Dialectics of Carnival: From Bakhtin to Baudrillard  William J. Swart and Dan Krier  Section 3: Conclusion  Conclusion  Shlomo Shoham