Files Law and Media Technology

"Cornelia Vismann's extraordinary Files . . . presents a methodology for addressing the relationship between media technologies and politics that is often absent, or at least shadowy, in materialist media theory of the Kittlerian style."-Seb Franklin, The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory "Vismann's erudite and attentive analysis shows clear awareness of the danger of both a perfect order (where everything is registered, recorded) and that of a deconstruction possible turning into an order of its own kind with potentially its own para-juridical legend."-Thanos Zartaloudis, Parallax "Vismann's Files is a highly original and theoretical project that combines the thinking of Derrida (on law and its enforcement) and Foucault (on juridical discourse and 'gouvernmentalité') with specific motifs of German media theory as developed by Friedrich Kittler. The book is a state-of-the-art contribution to the analysis of culture that allows us to envision a truly new interrelation between historical research and a comprehensive philosophy of culture that is yet to come." -Rüdiger Campe, Yale University