Brutalism by Achille Mbembe

Brutalism by Achille Mbembe

In Brutalism, eminent social and critical theorist Achille Mbembe invokes the architectural aesthetic of brutalism to describe our moment, caught up in the pathos of demolition and production on a planetary scale. Just as brutalist architecture creates an affect of overwhelming weight and destruction, Mbembe contends that contemporary capitalism crushes and dominates all spheres of existence. In our digital, technologically focused era, capitalism has produced a becoming-artificial of humanity and the becoming-human of machines. This blurring of the natural and artificial presents a planetary existential threat in which contemporary society’s goal is to precipitate the mutation of the human species into a condition that is at once plastic and synthetic. Mbembe argues that Afro-diasporic thought presents the only solution for breaking the totalizing logic of contemporary capitalism: repairing that which is broken, developing a new planetary consciousness, and reforming a community of humans in solidarity with all living things.

“In an argument both elegant and urgent, Achille Mbembe focuses our attention on the African continent, which is not only where the forms of domination and deprivation that increasingly affect the entire globe are most fully deployed but also where the forms of reparation necessary for a future world can be glimpsed” -- Michael Hardt, author of * The Subversive Seventies *
“This is a fantastic translation of a vital text. The poetry, intensity, complexity, and subtlety that we have come to expect from Achille Mbembe’s work are all here in Brutalism.” -- Laurent Dubois, translator of * Critique of Black Reason *
"Brutalism offers some experimental analyses but is, on the whole, something quite different: a poetico-political vision, or a 'panoramic fresco,' as he promises in the introduction: a suggestive image painted in broad strokes of dark, vital, earthy colours—and accents of hopeful green."
  -- Anders Dunke * Modern Times Review *

Achille Mbembe is Research Professor in History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is author of Necropolitics and Critique of Black Reason and coeditor of Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, all also published by Duke University Press.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781478025580
ISBN 10	1478025581
Title	Brutalism
Author	Achille Mbembe
Series	Theory In Forms
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Duke University Press
Year published	2024-01-09
Number of pages	200
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.