THEORY OF THE GIMMICK

A provocative theory of the gimmick as an aesthetic category steeped in the anxieties of capitalism.Repulsive and yet strangely attr active, the gimmick is a form that can be found virtually everywhere in capitalism. It comes in many guises: a musical hook, a finan cial strategy, a striptease, a novel of ideas. Above all, acclaimed theorist Sianne Ngai argues, the gimmick strikes us both as work ing too little (a labor-saving trick) and as working too hard (a strained effort to get our attention).Focusing on this connection t o work, ...[Read more]