The Extreme in Contemporary Culture: States of Vulnerability (Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics) - Softcover

Pramod K Nayar is Professor of English at the University of Hyderabad, India. His work in postcolonial studies includes Colonial Voices: The Discourses of Empire (2012), Writing Wrongs: The Cultural Construction of Human Rights in India (2012), English Writing and India, 1600–1920:Colonizing Aesthetics (2008)and Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction (2008). His interests in cultural studies include superheroes, consumer culture, ‘cool’, posthumanism and new media cultures, and his work here includes Posthumanism ( 2013)An Introduction to Cultural Studies (2008), Reading Culture: Theory, Praxis, Politics (2006) and Virtual Worlds: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cybertechnology (2004) besides numerous essays on cyberculture and, more recently, on human rights narratives

The Extreme in Contemporary Culture performs essential work by bringing together material generally segregated by the discipline of the investigator. Literature, film and television, torture, extreme sports, and terminal illness are all subjected to Nayar’s sharp, critical scalpel. The result is a persuasive case for the existence of a "culture of extremity” and a “culture of dehumanization”, and the urgent need for an alternative culture of "interrelatedness". (Stephen Eisenman, Professor of Art History, Northwestern University, Author of The Abu Ghraib Effect (2007) and The Cry of Nature: Art and the Making Of Animal Rights (2014))

The Extreme in Contemporary Culture ties together hitherto disparate notions of extremity. The impressive range of cultural examples under consideration allows Nayar to build a thesis around a central unifying concept: vulnerability. The result is a whirlwind of ideas, which are crafted into a fresh, energetic examination of pertinent socio-cultural concerns. (Steve Jones, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University, author of Torture Porn: Popular Horror after Saw)

This book is a highly original exploration of the articulation of contemporary culture by the figure of ‘the extreme’. It traces the ways in which the complex, contradictory and often disturbing vulnerabilities we encounter in ourselves, in others and between us, are a driving force shaping a diverse array of cultural phenomena. (Dave Boothroyd, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, Lincoln School of Film and Media, University of Lincoln, author of Ethical Subjects in Contemporary Culture)

Pramod K. Nayar’s book is raw, insightful and should be required reading in all culture studies and political science, especially peace and conflict resolution, programs throughout. Thoroughly researched—and assembling a plethora of topics under one roof—The Extreme in Contemporary Culture is a tour de force concerning vulnerability: a timely topic for the age of technological dehumanization, rose-colored social media reflections of the self and violent hypernormalisation. (Open Cultural Studies)