Leopards in the Temple: Studies in American Popular Culture

Leopards in the Temple explores the ways in which exposure to electronic environments influences cultural interpretations of self and otherness in contemporary American life. Philosophers of technology such as Jacques Ellul, Martin Heidegger, Herbert Marcuse, Hans Jonas, and Hubert Dreyfus have taken various approaches to interpreting the consequences of technological revolutions. With the exception of Jonas and Heidegger, critiques of technology’s influence at the ontological level are relatively rare. Addressing this issue, Steven Carter investigates the ways in which technology, media entertainment, and advertising are in the process of recycling metaphysical values in postmodern society. In this revised edition, he focuses specifically on marginality as a world wide literary phenomenon. Thought provoking and original, Leopards in the Temple represents a timely contribution to the study of technology, popular culture, and postmodern studies.