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Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm
Start Date
8-5-2023 7:30 PM
End Date
8-5-2023 8:20 PM
Description
There is a wide body of visual and literary cultural media on interpreting the over-bureaucratization in modern society as modern hell. I argue that more recent post-modern depictions of bureaucracy, especially in visual media, have been less disquieting. Apple’s Severance tapped into deep uncertainties that modern workers face on issues like work-life balance and self-actualization, but if bureaucracy is present, it is well concealed under the gloss and efficiency of modern office buildings and technology. Hell is not the first word that comes to mind even when faced with such disquiet. Gone is the visceral fear associated with hell, or the otherwise raw intentionality of greed and lust. I argue that such association is now embedded in nostalgia. Nihilism has largely replaced intentionality and intensity. Bureaucracy, once something to rally one’s mental energies against, is now seen as a complex social necessity, almost as inevitable as a force of nature. Viewed through this lens, I argue that Kafka and Orwell, who adroitly fused bureaucracy, dystopia, and techno-surveillance in their work, should be viewed as works of transition that draw on bureaucracy-as-hell themes from both the post-war modern era and the now-mainstream postmodern era. Finally, I draw both on literary versions of their work, as well as filmic adaptations and graphic novels to further argue that even these works are now viewed with nostalgia. We may well be entering an era in public discourse where the concept of hell is itself nostalgic.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
A Nostalgic Understanding of Bureaucracy as Hell
There is a wide body of visual and literary cultural media on interpreting the over-bureaucratization in modern society as modern hell. I argue that more recent post-modern depictions of bureaucracy, especially in visual media, have been less disquieting. Apple’s Severance tapped into deep uncertainties that modern workers face on issues like work-life balance and self-actualization, but if bureaucracy is present, it is well concealed under the gloss and efficiency of modern office buildings and technology. Hell is not the first word that comes to mind even when faced with such disquiet. Gone is the visceral fear associated with hell, or the otherwise raw intentionality of greed and lust. I argue that such association is now embedded in nostalgia. Nihilism has largely replaced intentionality and intensity. Bureaucracy, once something to rally one’s mental energies against, is now seen as a complex social necessity, almost as inevitable as a force of nature. Viewed through this lens, I argue that Kafka and Orwell, who adroitly fused bureaucracy, dystopia, and techno-surveillance in their work, should be viewed as works of transition that draw on bureaucracy-as-hell themes from both the post-war modern era and the now-mainstream postmodern era. Finally, I draw both on literary versions of their work, as well as filmic adaptations and graphic novels to further argue that even these works are now viewed with nostalgia. We may well be entering an era in public discourse where the concept of hell is itself nostalgic.
Comments
SESSION VII
6:30 PM—7:20 Eastern
5:30 PM—6:20 Central
4:30 PM—5:20 Mountain
3:30 PM—4:20 Pacific
10:30 PM—11:20 GMT