EPISODE · Aug 21, 2023 · 1H 24M
Ponzi Austerity in The Age of Cultural Abundance
from The American Vandal · host Matt Seybold, Center For Mark Twain Studies
How has the systemic defunding and deprofessionalizing of humanities academia impacted literary criticism? Why is there such a flourishing culture industry if demand for cultural education is supposedly declining? We look to megatrends like U.S. hegemony, organizations like the MLA (6:30), analogues like the Eurozone Debt Crisis (19:30), mechanisms of funding and distribution (28:00), and potential futures of disruption and declinism (1:01.30). Cast (in order of appearance): Jed Esty, Matt Seybold, Anna Kornbluh, Christopher Newfield, Yanis Varoufakis Soundtrack: Joe Locke's "Makram" For episode bibliography, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/PonziAusterity, or subscribe to our newsletter at TheAmericanVandal.SubStack.com, where you will also receive episode transcripts.
What this episode covers
How has the systemic defunding and deprofessionalizing of humanities academia impacted literary criticism? Why is there such a flourishing culture industry if demand for cultural education is supposedly declining? We look to megatrends like U.S. hegemony, organizations like the MLA (6:30), analogues like the Eurozone Debt Crisis (19:30), mechanisms of funding and distribution (28:00), and potential futures of disruption and declinism (1:01.30). Cast (in order of appearance): Jed Esty, Matt Seybold, Anna Kornbluh, Christopher Newfield, Yanis Varoufakis Soundtrack: Joe Locke's "Makram" For episode bibliography, please visit MarkTwainStudies.com/PonziAusterity, or subscribe to our newsletter at TheAmericanVandal.SubStack.com, where you will also receive episode transcripts.
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Ponzi Austerity in The Age of Cultural Abundance
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