Geoffrey Skoll, Associate Professor, Buffalo State College

This presentation offers a look at the trajectory of modernism to postmodernism. Using two modernist literary works—Ulysses by James Joyce and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller—it explores the neurosis of the modern age that has transformed into a psychosis. The psychosis reflects a crisis in the world system of capitalism and elite efforts to keep their privileges and to control the masses. Some of the key analysts covered in this historical and cultural journey include Michel Foucault, David Harvey, Frederic Jameson, and Henri Lefebvre. This presentation is derived from a chapter in Skoll’s forthcoming book, Social Theory of Fear: Terror, Torture, and Death in a Postcapitalist World to be published by Palgrave Macmillan, September 2010.