An Anthropology of Nothing in Particular - Softcover

Frederiksen, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1785356992 ISBN 13: 9781785356995

Publisher: Zero Books, 2018

Synopsis

There have been claims that meaninglessness has become epidemic in the contemporary world. One perceived consequence of this is that people increasingly turn against both society and the political establishment with little concern for the content (or lack of content) that might follow. Most often, encounters with meaninglessness and nothingness are seen as troubling. "Meaning" is generally seen as being a cornerstone of the human condition, as that which we strive towards. This was famously explored by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning in which he showed how even in the direst of situations individuals will often seek to find a purpose in life. But what, then, is at stake when groups of people negate this position? What exactly goes on inside this apparent turn towards nothing, in the engagement with meaninglessness? And what happens if we take the meaningless seriously as an empirical fact?

About this title

About the Author:

Martin Demant Frederiksen has a PhD in anthropology. His work focuses on subcultures, urban development, temporality and socio-political change. He is assistant professor at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Review:

"In summing up meaninglessness and packaging it in a form perfectly suited to the subject matter, Frederiksen has essentially captured alittle bit of nothing bween the covers of a book. I would recommend itboth to those who want to feel nothing, and those who are simply tired of always being made to feel something. You shold definitley read this book. Or don't. Whatever...."The Manchester Review of Books

"The book is both an experimental ethnography and a theoretical treatise on how we can understand and represent absence of meaning. Its author, Martin Demant Frederiksen, approaches the meaningless seriously as an ethnographic and experiential fact, refusing to explain what its ultimate meaning could be". NewBooksNetwork

About this edition

• Publisher: Zero Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1785356992
• ISBN 13: 9781785356995
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 136