The Well-Tempered Self: Citizenship, Culture, and the Postmodern Subject (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)

By Toby Miller

Book Overview

In The Well-Tempered Self, Toby Miller argues that the modern capitalist state musters a variety of cultural forces to send deliberately mixed messages about the nature of citizenship and the self. The process creates ideal citizens: "cultural subjects" trained to meet the conflicting needs of the political and economic systems. Miller contents that capitalism's democratic politics requires selfless, community-minded citizens, white its economics depends on selfish, utilitarian consumers. To fulfill these conflicting needs for political order and economic prosperity, powerful cultural forces are employed to instill a sense of "ethical incompleteness." Citizens are then offered political, cultural, and economic opportunities to become better, happier, and more fulfilled--opportunities that, in turn, encourage loyalty to both the political and economic systems. In a series of case studies that demonstrate this process, Miller examines mass enternationment, political discourse, and methods of resistance to these powerful cultural forces.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080184603X
• ISBN13: 9780801846038
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.5"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher