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The Shock of the Same

An Anti-Philosophy of Clichés

Tom Grimwood

Since the birth of modernity, Western thought has been at war with clichés. The association of philosophical and cultural integrity with originality, and the corresponding need for invention and novelty, has been a distinct concern of a whole spectrum of ideas and movements, from Nietzsche’s polemics against the ‘herd’, the ‘shock of the new’ of the artistic avant-garde, the Frankfurt School’s critique of mass culture, to Orwell’s defence of political dialogue from ‘dying metaphors’.

This book is the first examination of the cliché as a philosophical concept. Challenging the idea that clichés are lazy or spurious opposites to genuine thinking, it instead locates them as a dynamic and contestable boundary between ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’. The book unpacks the constituent phenomena of clichés – repetition, circulation, the readymade, same-ness – through readings of ‘anti-philosophical’ thinkers such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Paulhan, de Certeau, Derrida, Sloterdijk, Badiou and Groys. In doing so, the book critically articulates the techniques and technologies through which the boundary between ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’ is formed in modern Western philosophy.

Rejecting the idea that clichés should be dismissed out of hand on normative frameworks of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ thinking, or ‘new’ and ‘old’ ideas, it instead interrogates the material, cultural and archival ground on which these frameworks are built.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 230 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-78661-400-1 • Hardback • June 2021 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-78661-401-8 • eBook • June 2021 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

Series: Futures of the Archive

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy, Philosophy / Critical Thinking

The Shock of the Same

An Anti-Philosophy of Clichés

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Since the birth of modernity, Western thought has been at war with clichés. The association of philosophical and cultural integrity with originality, and the corresponding need for invention and novelty, has been a distinct concern of a whole spectrum of ideas and movements, from Nietzsche’s polemics against the ‘herd’, the ‘shock of the new’ of the artistic avant-garde, the Frankfurt School’s critique of mass culture, to Orwell’s defence of political dialogue from ‘dying metaphors’.

This book is the first examination of the cliché as a philosophical concept. Challenging the idea that clichés are lazy or spurious opposites to genuine thinking, it instead locates them as a dynamic and contestable boundary between ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’. The book unpacks the constituent phenomena of clichés – repetition, circulation, the readymade, same-ness – through readings of ‘anti-philosophical’ thinkers such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Paulhan, de Certeau, Derrida, Sloterdijk, Badiou and Groys. In doing so, the book critically articulates the techniques and technologies through which the boundary between ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’ is formed in modern Western philosophy.

Rejecting the idea that clichés should be dismissed out of hand on normative frameworks of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ thinking, or ‘new’ and ‘old’ ideas, it instead interrogates the material, cultural and archival ground on which these frameworks are built.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 230 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-78661-400-1 • Hardback • June 2021 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-78661-401-8 • eBook • June 2021 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

Series: Futures of the Archive

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy, Philosophy / Critical Thinking

Author

Tom Grimwood is senior research fellow at the University of Cumbria. He has published on a broad range of topics within the field of cultural hermeneutics, from Nietzschean misogyny to medieval anorexia, and his research has a particular focus on representations of ambiguity within the act of interpretation. He is the author of two books: Irony, Misogyny and Interpretation, and Key Debates in Social Work and Philosophy.

Table of Contents

Prologue
CHAPTER ONE: THE MEANING OF CLICHÉS
CHAPTER TWO: DEAD SPACES: ARENDT, ORWELL AND THE MORBIDITY OF POLITICAL CLICHÉS
CHAPTER THREE: CYNICAL MODERNITY FROM NIETZSCHE TO SLOTERDIJK
CHAPTER FOUR: SAYING IT WITH FLOWERS: JEAN PAULHAN’S INAPPROPRIATE METAPHORS
CHAPTER FIVE: THE SHOCK OF THE SAME: BORIS GROYS AND THE METANOIA OF THE CLICHÉ
CHAPTER SIX: ON THE PROBLEM OF SAYING SOMETHING NEW: KIERKEGAARD’S ARCHETYPES, MCLUHAN’S CLICHÉS
CHAPTER SEVEN: STOCK IMAGES OF MADNESS: RHETORIC AND CLICHÉ IN VIDEO GAMES
CHAPTER EIGHT: “THIS WILL ALL MAKE SENSE WHEN I AM OLDER”: REBOOTING CLICHÉS
CHAPTER NINE: GATEKEEPING THE “NOISE”: EXPERTISE, OPEN-MINDEDNESS AND PUBLIC DEBATE
Bibliography

Reviews

In this unprecedentedly fine-grained exegesis, Thomas Grimwood establishes a home for cliché in the Western philosophical tradition. His analysis of writers as diverse as Arendt and Nietzsche, Orwell and Kierkegaard, brings the reader what is rarely expected from an examination of cliché: originality, depth, and a freshness of perspective.

— Orin Hargraves, author of 'It's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use' and 'Abuse of Cliches'

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard referred to an excess of information as the ‘obscenity of language’. To engage meaningfully in this current ecstasy of communication, Tom Grimwood faces the cliché – a kind of monster of language and reflection. His brilliant critique is essential reading for anyone who wishes to filter out the noise and reflect on the value of language operating with precision in our information saturated world.

— Simon Morris, professor of art, Leeds Beckett University

The Shock of the Same

An Anti-Philosophy of Clichés

Tom Grimwood

The Shock of the Same

An Anti-Philosophy of Clichés

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