Ewch i’r prif gynnwys
Christopher Müller

Dr Christopher Müller

Honorary Research Associate, Critical and Cultural Theory

Ysgol Saesneg, Cyfathrebu ac Athroniaeth

Trosolwyg

www.cjmuller.co.uk

How do technological objects, artificial and linguistic structures shape human perception, agency and interaction? What is at stake when engaging in literary and cultural analysis today? My work responds to these questions by pursuing research in Literature, Contemporary Thought and Cultural Studies. My main areas of interest include: (1) Human obsolescence, the cultural politics of big data applications and the work of German philosopher Günther Anders. (2) The intersection of language, literature and affect, especially shame and inhibition. (3) Literary and philosophical conceptions of money and financial speculation.

I completed my PhD at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory (CCCT) in 2013, and my research activities have since been based here. My first monograph Prometheanism: Technology, Digital Culture and Human Obsolescence will appear in August 2016 (see publications), and I have co-organized a number events hosted by ENCAP, such as, the DTP doctoral training event on ‘Cultural Translations’ (2015) and the 3-day international conference on ‘the Cultural Politics of Memory’ (2014).

I am currently involved in a number of collaborative editorial, translation and creative practice projects. Most recently this has led to the exhibition of ‘Bank: Speculation in Ruins’, a collaborative project with the photographer, film-maker and artist Ian Wiblin (University of South Wales). This ongoing work engages with the architecture of Bank of England and the abstract nature of money. A fist funded exhibition was shown by the Contemporary Art Space Schwarzwaldallee in Basel (Switzerland) in October 2015.

I teach and have taught modules in a number of subject areas and disciplines that intersect with my research. These include Critical Theory and Cultural Studies (Cardiff University and University of South Wales); Contemporary Thought (Cardiff University and German National Academic Foundation); American Literature and Literary Theory (University of Bristol); Photography (University of South Wales). At Cardiff, I currently convene the module ‘Comedy, Tragedy and the Art of Living: An introduction to Ancient Philosophy and Literature’ on the Pathways to a Degree Scheme.

Publications

Books

Prometheanism: Technology, Digital Culture and Human Obsolescence (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming in August 2016).

www.rowmaninternational.com/books/prometheanism

Articles, Chapters and Journal Editions

‘Desert Ethics: Technology and the Question of Evil in Günther Anders and Jacques Derrida’, Parallax (2015), 21 (1): 42-57, DOI: 10.1080/13534645.2014.988910

‘Style and Arrogance: The Ethics of Heidegger’s Style’, Style in Theory: Between Literature and Philosophy, ed. by Ivan Callus, Gloria Lauri-Lucente, James Corby (London, New York: Continuum, 2013), pp. 141-162. www.bloomsbury.com/us/style-in-theory

Christopher Müller and Mareile Pfannebecker (eds.), ‘Corporealities: Body Limits’, Word and Text (2013), 3 (2).

Shorter Publications

‘We are born obsolete: Günther Anders’s (Post)humanism’ (2015). Genealogies, Critical Posthumanism Network. http://criticalposthumanism.net/anders

‘BANK: Speculation in Ruins: A Conversation on Photography and the Bank of England between Ian Wiblin and Chris Müller’.
BANK - Speculation in Ruins.pdf

Book-review: Ian Buchanan, Oxford Dictionary of Critical Theory (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), for Literature and Theology (2010), 24 (4): 436-438, DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frq034

Please contact me for details of forthcoming publications

Ongoing Research

My main research focus is the completion of a monograph that presents shame as an affect shaped by the generative relationship between humanity and technology. Main points of reference include: the phenomenon of literary style, affect theory, 20th Century French and German Thought.

Please contact me for further information and drafts of forthcoming publications in this area.

Translations

Günther Anders, ‘The Obsolescence of Privacy’ (from The Obsolescence of Human Beings Vol.2).

Editorial Projects

Credo Credit Crisis: Speculations on Faith and Money, ed. by Aidan Tynan, Laurent Milesi and Christopher John Müller (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

Money facilitates the rites and rituals we perform in everyday life. More than a mere medium of exchange or a measure of value, it is the primary means by which we manifest a faith unique to our secular age. But what happens when individual belief (credo, ‘I’ believe) and the systems into which it is bound (credit, ‘it’ believes) enter into crisis? Where did the sacredness of money come from, and does it have a future? Why do we talk about debt and repayment in overtly moral terms? How should a theological critique of capitalism proceed today? With the effects of the 2008 economic crises continuing to be felt across the world, this volume brings together some of the most important contemporary voices in philosophy, literature, theology, and critical and cultural theory together volume to assert the need to interrogate and broaden the terms of the theological critique of capitalism.

rowman.com/ISBN/9781783483808/Credo-Credit-Crisis-Speculations-on-Faith-and-Money