Unstoppable Decay and Relentless Hope: Study of Alterity in Popular Culture

Adrien Ordonneau

Rennes 2 University

Rennes, France

Author's contact information: ordonneau.adrien@gmail.com

INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology, Issue 7, 2021

Main Theme of the Issue: Music, Art and Mental Health in the time of Global Crisis

Publisher: INSAM Institute for Contemporary Artistic Music, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Section: MAIN THEME: Music, Art and Mental Health in the time of Global Crisis

DOI https://doi.org/10.51191/issn.2637-1898.2021.4.7.56

Abstract: Consequences of capitalism’s crises and their manifestations in arts have deeply modified the way we can approach mental health. As Mark Fisher pointed out in 2009 with his book Capitalist Realism, neoliberalism is using mental illness as a way to keep existing. The capacity to think a way out of alienation is deeply linked with arts and popular culture. The article proposes to study the uncanny dialogue between arts and politics in relationships to people, and mental health. The theoretical framework will show how arts are trying to build a way out of alienation, since 2009. The article will illustrate this research with the study of many artistic practices, including our own. The findings will show how the ambiguous and uncanny relationships with the world is used by artists as a way out of alienation, despite the difficulties occurring with mental health in time of crisis.

Keywords: Capitalism, Uncanny, Alienation, Postmodernism, Fiction, Health, Trauma, Alterity, Internet, Relationships

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7. INSAM Journal 7, Adrien Ordonneau