The Extreme in Contemporary Culture States of Vulnerability [Paperback]

The Extreme in Contemporary Culture performs essential work by bringing together material generally segregated by the discipline of the investigator. Literature, film and television, torture, extreme sports, and terminal illness are all subjected to Nayars sharp, critical scalpel. The result is a persuasive case for the existence of a culture of extremity and a culture of dehumanization, and the urgent need for an alternative culture of interrelatedness .The Extreme in Contemporary Culture ties together hitherto disparate notions of extremity. The impressive range of cultural examples under consideration allows Nayar to build a thesis around a central unifying concept: vulnerability. The result is a whirlwind of ideas, which are crafted into a fresh, energetic examination of pertinent socio-cultural concerns.This book is a highly original exploration of the articulation of contemporary culture by the figure of the extreme. It traces the ways in which the complex, contradictory and often disturbing vulnerabilities we encounter in ourselves, in others and between us, are a driving force shaping a diverse array of cultural phenomena.Pramod K. Nayars book is raw, insightful and should be required reading in all culture studies and political science, especially peace and conflict resolution, programs throughout. Thoroughly researchedand assembling a plethora of topics under one roofThe Extreme in Contemporary Culture is a tour de force concerning vulnerability: a timely topic for the age of technological dehumanization, rose-colored social media reflections of the self and violent hypernormalisation.Examines extremity as a political and cultural phenomenon in the late 20th and early 21st century. It argues that we can discern a continuum of extremes/extremity on which we may locate practices as diverse as Abu Ghraib, extreme sports, biomedical TV series and horror films.This is a study of vulnerability as a dominant cultural discourse today, especially as lC"