Guerrilla Theory: Political Concepts, Critical Digital Humanities

Guerrilla Theory explores the political, ontological, and technological foundations of the guerrilla in the digital humanities (DH) by linking popular iterations of DH practice to their political rhetoric and infrastructure. It pairs a theory-driven analysis of DH minoritarian interventions with contemporary political theory, tracing Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's radical democratic ingresses into network theory and the guerrilla's role in its discourse. It also connects post- and decolonial, feminist, and Marxist iterations of DH praxis to the aesthetic histories of actual guerrilla movements.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 30 October 2020
Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Guerrilla Theory delves into the political, ontological, and technological foundations of the guerrilla in the digital humanities (DH). The guerrilla figure has emerged in the recent history of DH as an agent of tactical transformation, representing a wide range of disciplinary aspirations. These include collaborative and inclusive pedagogy, minimal and encrypted computing, and various minoritarian political interventions within DH practices, such as queer politics, critical race studies, and feminist theory.

In this insightful exploration, Matthew Applegate employs the guerrilla as a lens to connect popular iterations of DH practice to their political rhetoric and infrastructure. By doing so, he reorients the conceptual vocabulary of DH around practices of collective becoming, mediated by claims to conflict, antagonism, and democratic will.

The book combines a theory-driven analysis of DH minoritarian interventions with contemporary political theory. It traces the radical democratic inroads made by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri into network theory, the guerrilla's role in its discourse, and concerns regarding DH's own invocation of the figure. Furthermore, the book establishes connections between post- and decolonial, feminist, and Marxist iterations of DH praxis to the aesthetic histories of actual guerrilla movements, including Latin American Third Cinema, New York-based Black Masks' antirepresentational politics, and the documentary cinema of the Black Panther Party.

Concluding with a meditation on the contemporary political modalities inherent in DH's disciplinary expansion, Guerrilla Theory presents a concept of DH as a form of critical university studies. It challenges the current political scope of DH, thereby shaping its future institutional impact.

Weight: 229g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780810140851