Hi,
No, I have not read this but it sounds strangely familiar. Raymond
Williams' 1962 article, "Advertising: the Magic System" (reprinted in
"Problems in Materialism and Culture", 1980, London: Verso, 170-195)
was instrumental in first pointing out the similarities between
techniques of advertising in capitalist culture and techniques of magic
in "primitive" (his word not mine) culture. Judith Williamson's classic
"Decoding Advertisments" (1987, New York: Marion Boyars) then took this
a stage further (particularly in chapter 6) comparing advertising
strategies to aspects of alchemy and spellcasting. So, the connection
between capitalism and magic/witchcraft (unfortunately the authors
concerned are not exact with terminologies that are dear to this list)
via the strategies of advertising (for which one can read "marketing
communication") is a remarked upon one in certain areas of cultural
studies/advertising theory.
Chris
On Mar 19, 2006, at 1:44 PM, C Kerslake wrote:
> Has anybody here read Isabelle Stengers recent book (with P. Pignarre)
> 'La
> Sorcellerie capitaliste', published last year? It's not translated yet.
>
> Isabelle Stengers is a highly respected philosopher of science (she
> co-wrote
> 'Order out of Chaos' with Ilya Prigogine). In her recent writings and
> in
> this new book, she has been claiming that capitalism makes use of
> practices
> of sorcery, and that those who wish to resist capitalism can learn from
> 'neo-pagan' sources about means of 'de-bewitchment' (desenvoutement).
> She
> has said that she now wants to take on the name 'witch', which she of
> course
> realises will cause a frisson of anxiety among her current readership!
> Recently, she also translated one of Starhawk's books into French.
>
> Would anyone like to discuss this work here or off-list?
>
>
> C
>
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Dr. Chris Miles
Faculty of Communication and Media Studies
Eastern Mediterranean University
Gazi Magusa
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Mersin 10, Turkey
http://homepage.mac.com/chris_miles
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