{"product_id":"send-in-the-clowns-popular-politics-after-neoliberalism-9781682195147","title":"Send in the Clowns!: Popular Politics After Neoliberalism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKennedy and McNaughton read Todd Phillips' record-breaking Hollywood blockbuster \u003ci\u003eJoker \u003c\/i\u003eas an economic and political allegory of our times. It is a book full of dazzling insights into the malaise of contemporary capitalism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat could be more surprising than the cinematic presentation of the Joker as a key to solving our present economic and political predicament? \u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e leads us precisely there. Grip this movie's visual language, its authors insist, and we can also grasp a political grammar, available to all, that articulates a new, world-changing solidarity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe predicament \u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e diagnoses is urgent: the way late capitalism ensures astonishing inequality, unleashing a backlash in conspiracy, violence, and authoritarianism. These pages map this unraveling onto the narrative of \u003ci\u003eJoker\u003c\/i\u003e. When the movie begins in 1981, neoliberal tides are shifting the sands: the rise of insecure work; the destabilizing of welfare; the explosion of racialized incarceration. A close reading of the film allows Kennedy and McNaughton to isolate and confront these phenomena.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e shows how melodrama has become late capitalism's preferred genre. It appears in neoliberal economic theory; in a media seduced by caricatured villainy; in state justifications for war. Melodrama allows demagogues to depict themselves as saviors and decry political opponents as criminals, threatening the foundations of democracy itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe myth of the lone superhero has brought us to the brink of disaster. If we don't want jokers for president, we must empower the clowns!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSe?n Kennedy\u003c\/b\u003e is a scholar, writer, and scavenger artist from Ireland. They live and work in Kjipuktuk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames McNaughton\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor at the University of Alabama. His nonfiction essays have appeared in \u003cem\u003eGuernica\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSouthern Cultures\u003c\/em\u003e, and elsewhere. His book \u003cem\u003eSamuel Beckett and the Politics of Aftermath\u003c\/em\u003e (Oxford University Press, 2018) grapples with how we normalize the horrors and contradictions of political and economic history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"OR Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51184711500050,"sku":"9781682195147","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ec24042a-7705-423b-8f44-05fc9dbc9741.jpg?v=1744569676","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/send-in-the-clowns-popular-politics-after-neoliberalism-9781682195147","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}