Critical Semiotics

This important contribution to the history of critical theory establishes crucial connections among information theory, semiotics, Marxist critique, and affect theory. By confronting obstacles to signification such as libidinal economies and commodification, Genosko provides a much-needed rereading of theories of signification, demonstrating that semiotics still matters in the age of big data, global consumerism, and visual media. -- Janell Watson, Professor of French, Virginia Tech, USA Just like Žižek in his critique of the Warchowski’s Matrix, Genosko in his Critical Semiotics rejects the false choice between the material blue pill and the semiotic red pill. However, he does not opt for a third pill, especially not the dialectical purple one. Following Guattari and a number of his sometimes delightfully unlikely bedfellows, Genosko reiterates the call for semiotic disobedience. Most crucially, the plea is not predicated on the facile rejection of the discursive in favour of the pathic. Rather, Genosko’s intricate mapping of the interface between expression and content remains necessarily contingent. Hence semiosis as a critique, a must-read for those living under the regime of semiocapitalism. -- Andrej Radman, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands In his characteristic rigour, precision and scholarly attention to texts, Genosko offers up a wide ranging and compelling history and theory of semiotics as both critical and creative practice. With tour de force readings of key post-structualist thinkers and its own original insights and contemporary case studies, this book effectively re-writes sign and affect theory. A must for all those working at the leading edge of the theoretical humanities. -- Simon O'Sullivan, Reader in Art Theory and Practice, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK