Capitalism on Keren Wang

Rhetorical Methods - Ideological and Psychoanalytic Criticism

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:40:01 +0000

Originally posted by: Keren Wang, Fall 2024

Ideological Criticism - Overview

Ideological criticism is a method of analyzing texts and other rhetorical artifacts to uncover the underlying ideologies that shape and are reflected in them. This type of criticism is often used to explore how media, literature, and other forms of communication reinforce or challenge dominant social, political, and economic power structures.

Free City Radio Interview: Exploring the Inherent Sacrifices of Capitalism

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 13:37:35 +0000

I’m excited to share that I was recently featured on Free City Radio in an in-depth conversation about my research on the concept of human sacrifice in capitalism. The interview, now available on SoundCloud, is part of an interview series that examines the foundational realities of modern-day capitalism, specifically shaped by the notion of human sacrifice as a necessary element of economic systems.

Here’s a link to the interview: Author Keren Wang on Human Sacrifice as Inherent to Capitalism Today. During this conversation, I explore how this framework, traditionally viewed through ancient rituals, continues in modern contexts through the exploitation of labor, environmental destruction, and systemic injustices.

Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 21:09:13 +0000

"Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism"

Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

Building on my doctoral dissertation, I have been exploring the rhetorical inventions of "sacrifice" in the construction and ordering of societal institutions. The rhetoric of sacrifice, and its public rituals, form a core practice of all social orders. Though the practices have become substantially more subtle and even more deeply embedded in everyday social practices and expectations, this research project explores the underlying local and trans-cultural reflexes inherent in the performance of social, political, and economic sacrifices, and their connections to the organization of public institutions. Indeed, the fundamental presumption of sacrifice - the bargaining between unequal powers for the purchase of objectives by the offering of items precious to the giver - has often become so embedded to tacit social norms as to become effectively invisible. Though this project focuses on its connection to the organization of what is termed "late capitalism," its insinuation in all social orderings is hard to ignore. "Civilized" societies and economic relations are ordered through the rituals of sacrifice - propitiation for whatever totems and taboos are set above the governance orders around which collectives coalesce.

Capitalism on Keren Wang

Rhetorical Methods - Ideological and Psychoanalytic Criticism

Table of Contents

Ideological Criticism - Overview

Free City Radio Interview: Exploring the Inherent Sacrifices of Capitalism

Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

"Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism"

Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney