Disappearance of Rituals

A Topology of the Present

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Byung-Chul Han, Daniel Steuer: Disappearance of Rituals (2020, Polity Press)

208 pages

English language

Published Sept. 15, 2020 by Polity Press.

ISBN:
978-1-5095-4421-9
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4 stars (1 review)

4 editions

Punchy, stimulating, provocative: making oneself at home in time

4 stars

Having only seen the titles of Byung-Chul Han's other essays, I wonder whether he has only ever written one text, iterated and extruded into several compact volumes. From its point of entry at the loss of ritual under neoliberalism, this short book seems to take Han through familiar territory: transparency contra ambiguity, authenticity and narcissism contra community, production contra play. I feel that the concept of ritual houses the conversation well (along with play, which ritual seems to transmute into around the fifth chapter, titled ‘A Game of Life and Death’). Rather than presenting rituals nostalgically, as a form to return to, in this essay they “serve as a background against which our present times may be seen to stand out more clearly,” according to Han’s ‘Preliminary Remark’ at the start. In fact this foreword sets a clear and accurate expectation for the entire essay, which in itself shows Han’s …