Cartographies of the Absolute

by Alberto Toscano, Jeff Kinkle

Can capital be seen? Cartographies of the Absolute surveys the disparate answers to this question offered by artists, film-makers, writers and theorists over the past few decades. It zones in on the crises of representation that have accompanied the enduring crisis of capitalism, foregrounding the production of new visions and artefacts that wrestle with the vastness, invisibility and complexity of the abstractions that rule our lives.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Geography, Nonfiction, Politics, Literary Criticism

311 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2015

About the author

Giornalista e analista politico, laureato in Scienze politiche a Milano, ha lavorato per importanti testate italiane e francesi, tra cui L’Unità, ItaliaOggi, Il Giornale, France 5, LCI e La Croix. Vive a Parigi dal 1986, dove è anche docente universitario a Bordeaux e alla Sorbona.

Ha ricoperto ruoli di rilievo in associazioni della stampa europea e ha ricevuto numerosi riconoscimenti, tra cui onorificenze da Jacques Chirac e Giorgio Napolitano. È stato protagonista di iniziative culturali e teatrali, e collabora attivamente con media italiani e francesi.

Reviews

[Devin Day]

Zero Books can be a great publisher that puts out thought-provoking work in a very timely manner. It can also be frustrating when they publish a book with no index and 424 footnotes…

[Lette Hass]

Cartographies takes as its object representation as such, which it tracks through theories, models, visual works, films, novels, engineering projects and whole cities: it is an immense museum exhibition of artifacts material and mental which attempt, to convey the totalisation implacably at work everywhere in late-capitalism….

Todo apunta a la misma urgencia: hacer visible el sistema.

[Miroslaw Aleksander · Rating 2 out of 5]

The offers a very interesting premise, and, at its best is insightful. However, its fixation on Jameson and a industrial view impose by classical Marxism leads to a series of problems and assumptions that should be reconsidered in a service-based global economy. As a result, although it does have several very interesting elements and discussions, the book ultimately fails to deliver.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una buena tesis y un desarrollo que no termina de estar a la altura. El análisis teórico sobre las formas de cartografiar el capitalismo es original e interesante; los abordajes particulares sobre series, películas y obras de arte, en cambio, no aportan demasiado ni parece justificarse su relevancia.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great, took a while to get going, but the chapter on 'dead labour' and landscapes is Excellent.