Dramatic Intellectuals

Beschreibung

“Intellectuals are dull as book-worms, you say? Not in this book. Among others we encounter dramatic life portraits, such as Bertrand Russell and C.G. Jung, at opposite ends of the political and intellectual spectrum, but understandable in the perspective of cutting-edge cultural sociology.”

—Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania, USA. Author of The Sociology of Philosophies.

“What do Slavoj Žižek, Jordan Peterson, and Giorgio Agamben have to do with celebrity culture and public spectacle? As Dramatic Intellectuals shows, the answer is everything. It sets forth a new agenda for the cultural sociology of public intellectuals, demonstrating how ideas become influential as much through theatrical presentation as through content. This is a must-read for scholars, students, and anyone fascinated by the intersection of ideas, performance, and public life.”

—Shai M. Dromi, Harvard University, USA

“Dramatic Intellectuals is a superb collection exploring an exciting approach to the sociology of intellectuals. This approach sees intellectuals not merely as epiphenomena of this or that social force, but as performing agents, acting out their ideas on the social stage. Pérez-Jara and Rudas have drawn together the leading experts in this field to provide a beautifully curated collection of essays. This book is an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the aestheticized dramas that intellectuals are continually caught up in.”

—Marcus Morgan, University of Bristol, UK

This volume offers a renewed understanding of public intellectuals by examining the socio-cultural foundations of their influence on contemporary societies. Each chapter focuses on a different pivotal figure to show how they shaped collective imagination through master stories of utopia and apocalypse. This book will be essential reading for scholars of cultural sociology. 

Javier Pérez-Jara is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Seville, Spain, and a Faculty Fellow at Yale University’s CCS, USA. 

Nicolás Rudas is a Sociology PhD candidate and a Junior Fellow at Yale University’s CCS, USA. 

This edited volume advances meaning-centered approaches to understanding the social construction of public intellectuals and their enduring influence on contemporary societies. The contributors reject reductionist perspectives that depict intellectuals and their ideas as mere byproducts of broader social forces. Instead, the volume champions a multidimensional approach that recognizes the semi-autonomy and causal power of intellectual discourses. At the core of this framework is the concept of dramatic intellectuals—figures who navigate collective anxieties and hopes, shaping public discourse through master narratives of salvation and catastrophe, utopia and apocalypse. Through diverse case studies, the volume identifies key features of their master stories, including stark binaries, the social construction of meta-adversaries and meta-saviors, the mobilization of cultural traumas and ideological packs, and the Cassandra complex. Each chapter examines at least one pivotal dramatic intellectual within her cultural context, exploring how these figures shape public discourse and collective imagination. The volume covers a diverse range of intellectuals, including Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Frantz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Arne Naess, Ingemar Hedenius, Ayn Rand, Otis Eugene “Gene” Ray, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Laje, Slavoj Žižek, Jordan Peterson, and Giorgio Agamben. Beyond detailed case studies, the book lays the groundwork for new research agendas in the sociology of intellectuals. This book will be essential reading for scholars of cultural sociology.

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Javier Pérez-Jara

Themen in »Dramatic Intellectuals«

cultural sociology cultural pragmatism positioning theory public intellectual intellectual history

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“Intellectuals are dull as bookworms, you say? Not in this book. Among others, we encounter dramatic life portraits—such as those of Bertrand Russell and C.G. Jung—at opposite ends of the political and intellectual spectrum, yet understandable in the perspective of cutting-edge cultural sociology.” (Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania, USA. Author of The Sociology of Philosophies)

“Dramatic Intellectuals exemplifies the best of edited books. Javier Pérez-Jara and Nicolás Rudas successfully orchestrate, in a set of original, carefully-researched, and well-integrated chapters, an international group of senior and junior scholars as they examine the ideas, lives, and milieux of an international cast of some of the 20th-century’s most significant public intellectuals. Building on Jeffery Alexander’s generative notion of dramatic intellectuals, the species of intellectuals who construct and disseminate grand historical narratives that emotionally engage public audiences through the use of highly-charged normative languages based on simplifying binaries (such as good-pure verses evil-polluted), Dramatic Intellectuals makes a major and timely contribution toward understanding some of the core features of contemporary culture.” (Charles Camic, Northwestern University, USA)

“This book is essential reading for anyone curious about ideas and social change and, more specifically, about the role that public intellectuals play in reflecting and transforming society. With case studies ranging from film to conspiracy theories, from celebrity to cancel culture, Dramatic Intellectuals challenges both reductionist and idealistic understandings of intellectuals. The book convincingly shows how intellectuals are like actors on a stage, constructing knowledge in dramatic, emotional, and culturally textured ways. This is a must-read for scholars and students of the sociology of knowledge, as well as anyone interested in the drama of thought in action.” (Isabel Jijón, Harvard University, USA)

“What do Slavoj Žižek, Jordan Peterson, and Giorgio Agamben have to do with celebrity culture and public spectacle? As Dramatic Intellectuals shows, the answer is everything. This groundbreaking book reveals that today’s thinkers are as much performers as philosophers. It sets forth a new agenda for the cultural sociology of public intellectuals, demonstrating how ideas become influential as much through theatrical presentation as through content. This is a must-read for scholars, students, and anyone fascinated by the intersection of ideas, performance, and public life.” (Shai M. Dromi, Harvard University, USA)

“Dramatic Intellectuals is a superb collection exploring an exciting approach to the sociology of intellectuals. This approach sees intellectuals not merely as epiphenomena of this or that social force, but as performing agents, acting out their ideas on the social stage. Pérez-Jara and Rudas have drawn together the leading experts in this field to provide a beautifully curated collection of essays. This book is an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the aestheticized dramas that intellectuals are continually caught up in.” (Marcus Morgan, University of Bristol, UK)

“This collection of empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated papers constitutes a significant step forward for the performance-theoretic approach that has steadily been advancing in cultural sociology the past couple of decades. A uniformly high-quality set of studies on a wide range of substantive topics, it also coheres admirably around a clearly worked-out analytical agenda and never strays far from its overriding concern: to illuminate the drama of intellectual life, the complex sociocultural processes whereby ideas and their progenitors come to have a powerful impact upon the social world.” (Mustafa Emirbayer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

“I’m genuinely excited to share Dramatic Intellectuals, edited by Javier Pérez-Jara and Nicolás Rudas. This beautifully argued collection reminded me why I fell in love with the sociology of ideas. Each chapter brings narrative and performance into vivid relief, spanning a range of perspectives—from Jeffrey Alexander to Zeina Al Azmeh and Patrick Baert, via Ron Eyerman—and topics ranging from Almodóvar’s cinema to cancel culture to the Žižek–Peterson showdown. What I value most is how contributors treat intellectuals not as passive mouthpieces of structure, but as agents whose stories and stagecraft actually reshape our world. Whether you’re a graduate student drafting your first article or a seasoned scholar reflecting on power and meaning, you’ll find fresh insights on how ideas take dramatic form and mobilize us all.” (Emma Engdahl, Gothenburg University, Sweden)

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