BLACK MIRROR AND CRITICAL MEDIA THEORY

Edited by Angela Cirucci and Barry Vacker

Published in 2018 by Lexington Books. For Lexington site, click here. For Amazon, click here.

Black Mirror is The Twilight Zone of the twenty-first century. Already a philosophical classic, the series echoes the angst of an era, a civilization and consciousness fully engulfed in the 24/7 media spectacle spanning the planet. With clever plots and existential themes, Black Mirror presents near-futures where humans collide with technology and each other—tomorrows that might arrive in five years or five minutes. Featuring scholars from three continents and ten nations, Black Mirror and Critical Media Theory is an international collection of critical media theory applied to the most intellectually provocative TV show of our time and the all-too-real conditions that inspire it.

Drawing from thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Marshall McLuhan, and Paul Virilio, the authors reverse-engineer Black Mirror by probing the ideas, meanings, and conditions embedded in the episodes. The book is organized around six key topics reflected and explored in Black Mirror—

human identity

surveillance culture

spectacle and hyperreality

aesthetics

technology and existence

and dystopian futures.

The anthology features essays by CMAD associates: Julia Hildebrand, Osei Alleyne, Angela Cirucci, and Barry Vacker