Prewitt, Ryan, and Max Accardi. “Cultural Necromancy: Digital Resurrection and Hegemonic Incorporation.” SubStance 52, no. 2 (2023): 74-101. https://doi.org/10.1353/sub.2023.a907150.
Abstract:
This essay follows the recent discourse on two phenomena: the tendency of hegemony to incorporate subversive cultures, and the digital reanimation of prominent dead people. At the intersection of these phenomena lies what we call “cultural necromancy,” a special case of hegemonic incorporation that aesthetically manipulates the physical presence of a deceased figure in the service of power. This essay explores historical analogues to cultural necromancy and how the digital age has accelerated the process through examples ranging from medieval saints to Lenin’s mausoleum to the Tupac hologram. It then examines cultural necromancy’s implications for counterculture and resistance.
Extract
Whereas killing or not killing was the hallmark of sovereignty, preserving life for the purpose of managing it is the hallmark of biopower. Because the focus of biopower is life, Foucault suggested that death was the natural limit of hegemony. He wrote:
“Death becomes, insofar as it is the end of life, the limit, or the end, of power too. Death is outside the power relationship. Death is beyond the reach of power, and power has a grip on it only in general, overall, or statistical terms. Power has no control over death, but it can control mortality.” (Society 248)
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