[Download] "Zoetropes and the Politics of Humanhood" by Allison L. Rowland * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details
- Title: Zoetropes and the Politics of Humanhood
- Author : Allison L. Rowland
- Release Date : January 28, 2020
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,Nonfiction,Social Science,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 2425 KB
Description
The way we talk about living beings can raise or lower their perceived value. Consider the pro-life strategy of calling a fetus a child, thereby effectively promoting the value of fetal life. In the opposite direction, calling a Pakistani child killed by a US drone strike collateral damage can implicitly demote the value of that childâs life. Allison L. Rowlandâs Zoetropes and the Politics of Humanhood looks at such discursive practicesâproviding the first systematic account of how transvaluations like these operate in public discourse and lurk at the edges of all language.
Building on the necropolitical concept that we are constantly parsing populations into worthy lives, subhuman lives, and lives sentenced to death, Rowlandâs study focuses specifically at zoetropesâthe rhetorical devices and figures that result in such transvaluations. Through a series of case studies, including microbial life (at the American Gut Project), fetal life (at the National Memorial for the Unborn), and vital human life (at two of the nationâs premier fitness centers)âand in conversation with cutting-edge theories of race, gender, sexuality, and disabilityâthis book brings to light the discursive practices that set the terms for inclusion into humanhood and make us who we are.