Kittler Now Current Perspectives in Kittler Studies

Friedrich Kittler was one of the world’s most influential, provocative and misunderstood media theorists. His work spans analyses of historical ‘discourse networks’ inspired by French poststructuralism, influential theorizations of new media, through to musings on music and mathematics. Always controversial and relentlessly unpredictable, Kittler’s work is a major reference point for contemporary media theory, literary criticism and cultural studies.

This is the only book of essays currently available in English on an important thinker whose influence across disciplines is growing. The volume situates Kittler’s ideas, explaining and critiquing his sometimes difficult writing, and using his theories to undertake innovative readings of old and new media. It also includes previously untranslated work by Kittler himself. Contributors include Caroline Bassett, Steven Connor, Alexander R. Galloway, Mark B. Hansen, John Durham Peters and Geoffrey Winthrop-Young.

Stephen Sale is a PhD candidate at the London Consortium

Laura Salisbury is Senior Lecturer in Medicine & English Literature at the University of Exeter

Acknowledgements                                                                                        
Contributors                                                                                                    
Editors’ introduction                                                                                      

Section I: Grecian 2000                                                                                              
1. Friedrich Kittler – The God of Ears (Translated by Paul Feigelfeld and Anthony Moore)
2. John Durham Peters – Assessing Kittler’s Musik und Mathematik             
3. Stephen Sale – Thinking By Numbers: the role of mathematics in Kittler and      
Heidegger
4. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young – Siren Recursions                                          
5. Friedrich Kittler – Preparing the Arrival of the Gods                                            

Section II: “Our Writing Tools are also Working on our Thoughts”                          
6. Steven Connor – Scilicet: Kittler, Media and Madness                                         
7. Katherine Biers – The Typewriter’s Truth                                                              
8. Gill Partington – Films in Books/Books in Film: Fahrenheit 451 and the             
Media Wars

Section III: Theorising New Media                                                                            
9. Alexander R. Galloway – If the Cinema Is an Ontology, the Computer               
Is an Ethic
10. Caroline Bassett – Staring into the Sun                                                                
11. Mark B. N. Hansen – Symbolising Time: Kittler and 21st Century Media          

Notes Translated by Paul Feigelfeld and Anthony Moore