Description
Book SynopsisFollows the hollowing-out of "coolness" in modern American culture and its reflection of a larger evasion of race, racism, and ethics now common in neoliberal society
Trade ReviewWay Too Cool constitutes a significant and entirely original intervention into the literature on neoliberalism and biopolitics. The book's range, depth, and precision are breathtaking. -- Lynne Huffer, author of Are the Lips a Grave? A Queer Feminist on the Ethics of Se With keen, deliberate intellectual insight and daring, Winnubst elevates the discussion of cool to its rightful place in the pantheon of critical theory, highlighting aspects of popular culture and its impact on mainstream thought. -- bell hooks, activist and author Shannon Winnubst makes more sense of neoliberalism than any writer I have read. Mapping how neoliberalism in the United States de-racializes difference in its quest for cool, she theorizes race outside the parameters of identity politics by way of the Lacanian real. This wickedly smart and profoundly ethical book deserves a very wide readership. -- Tim Dean, author of Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking For Winnubst, the dehistoricization of cool produces an ethical crisis as it detaches coolness from efforts to imagine and produce a better social world. Way Too Cool is one of the most provocative texts that I have read on race, philosophy, and ethics in a long time. -- Roderick Ferguson, author of The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference In this intellectually vibrant text that reads economic doctrines, racialized class inequities, and the lasting residue of popular culture with equal grace, Winnubst uses the genealogy of cool to pen a riveting treatise on race, ethics, and the commodification of social difference. Winnubst's arguments are precise and persuasive, as rigorously crafted as they are creatively composed. This book is poised to shake up how we think, talk and teach about neoliberalism. -- Juana Maria Rodriguez, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley A provocative and field-changing book... This is an account to be reckoned with. Hypatia
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: A Very Uncool Book 1. Excavating Categories: Foucault's Birth of Biopolitics Interlude 1: Old School Cool 2. Rethinking Difference: The Limits of Interpellation Interlude 2: Instant Cool! 3. From Instant Karma to Instant Wealth: The Fantasies and Cathexes of These Neoliberal Times Interlude 3: Neoliberal Cool 4. "How Cool Is That?": Gender and the Neoliberal Imaginary Interlude 4: The Birth of Cool 5. Reading Race as the Real: The Securities and Punishments of Neoliberal Cool Interlude 5: Real Cool, Now 6. Stop Making Sense: The Aporia of Race and Ethics Notes Bibliography Index
