{"product_id":"9780674245310","title":"Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA provocative theory of the gimmick as an aesthetic category steeped in the anxieties of capitalism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRepulsive and yet strangely attractive, the gimmick is a form that can be found virtually everywhere in capitalism. It comes in many guises: a musical hook, a financial strategy, a striptease, a novel of ideas. Above all, acclaimed theorist Sianne Ngai argues, the gimmick strikes us both as working too little (a labor-saving trick) and as working too hard (a strained effort to get our attention).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFocusing on this connection to work, Ngai draws a line from gimmicks to political economy. When we call something a gimmick, we are registering uncertainties about value bound to labor and time-misgivings that indicate broader anxieties about the measurement of wealth in capitalism. With wit and critical precision, Ngai explores the extravagantly impoverished gimmick across a range of examples: the fiction of Thomas Mann, Helen DeWitt, and Henry James; photographs by Torbjørn Rødland; the video art of Stan Douglas; the theoretical writings of Stanley Cavell and Theodor Adorno. Despite its status as cheap and compromised, the gimmick emerges as a surprisingly powerful tool in this formidable contribution to aesthetic theory.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harvard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46430671306993,"sku":"9780674245310","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/9780674245310_p0.jpg?v=1765518777","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780674245310","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}