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Media theory

Publication ,  Journal Article
Hansen, MBN
Published in: Theory, Culture and Society
January 1, 2006

Poised on the cusp between phenomenology and materiality, media institute a theoretical oscillation that promises to displace the empirical-transcendental divide that has structured western meditation on thinking, including the thinking of technics. Because media give the infrastructure conditioning thought without ceasing to be empirical (i.e. without functioning as a transcendental condition), they form the basis for a complex hermeneutics that cannot avoid the task of accounting for its unthematizable infrastructural condition. Tracing the oscillation constitutive of such a hermeneutics as it serves variously to constitute media theory in the work of critics from McLuhan to Kittler, from Leroi-Gourhan to Stiegler, my interrogation ultimately conceptualizes the medium as an environment for life:by giving concrete form to 'epiphylogenesis' (the exteriorization of human evolution), concrete media find their most 'originary' function not as artifacts but via their participation in human technogenesis (our co-evolution with technics).

Duke Scholars

Published In

Theory, Culture and Society

EISSN

1460-3616

ISSN

0263-2764

Publication Date

January 1, 2006

Volume

23

Issue

2-3

Start / End Page

291 / 306

Related Subject Headings

  • General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
  • 2002 Cultural Studies
  • 2001 Communication and Media Studies
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

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Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Hansen, M. B. N. (2006). Media theory. Theory, Culture and Society, 23(2–3), 291–306.
Hansen, M. B. N. “Media theory.” Theory, Culture and Society 23, no. 2–3 (January 1, 2006): 291–306.
Hansen MBN. Media theory. Theory, Culture and Society. 2006 Jan 1;23(2–3):291–306.
Hansen, M. B. N. “Media theory.” Theory, Culture and Society, vol. 23, no. 2–3, Jan. 2006, pp. 291–306.
Hansen MBN. Media theory. Theory, Culture and Society. 2006 Jan 1;23(2–3):291–306.
Journal cover image

Published In

Theory, Culture and Society

EISSN

1460-3616

ISSN

0263-2764

Publication Date

January 1, 2006

Volume

23

Issue

2-3

Start / End Page

291 / 306

Related Subject Headings

  • General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
  • 2002 Cultural Studies
  • 2001 Communication and Media Studies
  • 1608 Sociology