We are said to be living in the “age of anger” where a bubbling rage pervades our contemporary societies, steaming off people regardless of nationality, political position, or subject position. We are also told that anger needs an outlet; if anger is not vented, it builds up and will explode – dangerously and unpredictably. Franz Fanon writes of what he calls “Collective Catharsis” declaring: “In every society, in every collectivity, exists – must exist – a channel, an outlet through which the forces accumulated in the form of aggression can be released.” This talk takes up the “media of purgation” as techniques of losing control to gain control. The media of purgation allow to interrogate relationships between anger, destruction, and catharsis and how roles in public life – especially in the ways that rage is understood as simultaneously dangerous and politically transformative.
Dylan Mulvin is an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics in the Department of Media and Communications. Mulvin is a historian of media, technology, and culture.
Reception at 6 p.m. Lecture at 7 p.m.