UID:
edocfu_9959941659402883
Format:
1 online resource (307 p.)
ISBN:
9781478013181
Series Statement:
A Cultural Politics Book
Content:
Operation Valhalla collects eighteen texts by German media theorist Friedrich Kittler on the close connections between war and media technology. In these essays, public lectures, interviews, literary analyses, and autobiographical musings, Kittler outlines how war has been a central driver of media's evolution, from Prussia's wars against Napoleon to the so-called War on Terror. Covering an eclectic array of topics, he charts the intertwined military and theatrical histories of the searchlight and the stage lamp, traces the microprocessor's genealogy back to the tank, shows how rapid-fire guns brought about new standards for optics and acoustics, and reads Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow to upset established claims about the relationship between war, technology, and history in the twentieth century. Throughout, Operation Valhalla foregrounds the outsize role of war in media history as well as Kittler's importance as a daring and original thinker.
Note:
Frontmatter --
,
CONTENTS --
,
Editors’ Preface --
,
Introduction: The Wars of Friedrich Kittler --
,
Part I: Guns, Germans, and Steel: The Hardware(s) of War --
,
1 Free Ways --
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2 A Short History of the Searchlight --
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3 Fragments of a History of Firearms --
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4 Tanks --
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Part II: Wires, Waves, and Wagner --
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5 Noises of War --
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6 Playback: A World War History of Radio Drama 91 --
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7 Operation Valhalla --
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8 When the Blitzkrieg Raged --
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Part III: Vanishing Animals and Returning Nomads --
,
9 Animals of War: A Historical Bestiary --
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10 On Modern Warfare: A Conversation with Alexander Kluge --
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11 Of States and Their Terrorists --
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Part IV: Love and War --
,
12 Manners of Death in War --
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13 Ottilie Hauptmann --
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Part V: Pynchon’s War --
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14 On a Novel That Would Not Only Be Fiction --
,
15 De Nostalgia --
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16 Media and Drugs in Pynchon’s Second World War --
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Part VI: Kittler on Kittler --
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17 Biogeography --
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18 Theology --
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Notes --
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Bibliography --
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Index --
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Credits
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In English.
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1515/9781478013181
URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781478013181
