Steven Shaviro

Symposium

Steven Shaviro is an American cultural critic. His most widely read book is Doom Patrols, a "theoretical fiction" that outlines the state of postmodernism during the early 1990s, using poetic language, personal anecdotes, and creative prose.

Additionally, Shaviro has written a book about film theory, The Cinematic Body, which examines the dominance of Lacanian tropes in contemporary academic film theory. According to Shaviro, the use of psychoanalysis has mirrored the actions of a cult, with its own religious texts (essays by Freud and Lacan).

Shaviro's book Connected, Or, What It Means to Live in the Network Society, appeared in 2003. A new book, Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze, and Aesthetics was published in May 2009.

Dr. Shaviro earned a PhD from Yale in 1981. After several years teaching at the University of Washington, he now resides in Detroit with his wife and daughters. He teaches literature and film at Wayne State University. He is currently at work on his latest book, tentatively titled The Age of Æsthetics, a series of essays on contemporary consumer culture, and the relationship between aesthetic values (style, specifically) and Marxist theory.