Resistance in the Deceleration Lane

The book is largely concerned with the history of Western culture of speed that forms the framework within which the phenomenon of slow living is placed. A comprehensive analysis of practices and representations of deceleration in everyday life slow travel, slow London and slow lit suggests the rise of a post-slow stage in the history of speed.

Motivated by a desire to reflect critically on the ways in which speeds, both high and low, and their representations affect the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of meanings around particular cultural texts, images and practices, Resistance in the Deceleration Lane uses the velocentric perspective to examine the phenomenon of «slow living» and its rhetoric. The book analyzes cultural practices which are inspired by the conviction that the increased speed of everyday life cannot be accepted unquestioningly. It portrays slowness as a strategy of contestation and resistance on one hand, and on the other it highlights the process of the gradual commercialization of the slow logo and suggests the rise of a post-slow stage in the history of speed.

Autorentext

Marzena Kubisz is Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Cultures and Literatures at the University of Silesia (Poland). Her research focuses on body, multiculturalism and the social impacts of speed. She is the author of Strategies of Resistance. Body, Identity and Western Culture (Peter Lang, 2003).

Inhalt
Contents: Slowness Simplicity and resistance The temporality of (other) pleasure New territoriality in an age of deterritorialization Slow London Slow travel Slow lit Post-slow Speed Velocentrism Acceleration and modern experience Streamlined culture and the rise of the mis-man.