Consumption, Spectacle, and Enjoyment
Course Description
In the 1967 polemic Society of Spectacle, Guy Debord faults the rise of capitalism for turning our society into a world dominated by the mediation of commercialized images. Some critics, like Giorgio Agamben and Todd McGowan, echo Debord’s viewpoint and explore the way to confront the triumph of the spectacle. Others argue against Debord by highlighting the eclipse of spectacle ensued from the pervasiveness of media technology. Jean Baudrillard, for example, claims that “we are no longer in the society of spectacle” insofar as the spectacle signifies nothing but itself and thus paradoxically ceases to have content. While diverging considerably in their thought, these theorists show a common interest in engaging with the concept of spectacle. To address Debord’s Society of Spectacle in a more modern context, this course is designed to examine how the notion of spectacle shifts as the modes of socio-economic production and technology changes. As the interpretation of the society of spectacle, in fact, is closely related to the critique of consumption, this course will deal with .the intertwined relation between spectacle, image and commodity by reading related works of Jean Baudrillard, Jonathan Crary, Susan Sontag and Zygmunt Bauman, etc. Moreover, to explore the question concerning whether the society of spectacle de-sensitizes the spectators or aggravates their thirst for enjoyment, Freud’s analysis of the subject’s reaction to stimuli will also be brought into discussion.