Title: The Postcard’s Radical Openness
Subtitle: A Philosophical Perspective of its Inception, Impact, and Traits
Subject Classification:  Society and Culture, History, Arts  
BIC Classification: AB, JF, HB
BISAC Classification: SOC022000, ART016010, PHI013000
Binding: Hardback, Paperback, eBook
Publication date: 07 Apr 2024
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-80441-515-3
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-80441-516-0
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-80441-517-7

To view a sample of the book, please click here

e-books available for libraries from   Proquest  and   EBSCO   with non-institutional availability from  GooglePlay

For larger orders, or orders where you require an invoice, contact us  admin@ethicspress.com

Description

The Postcard’s Radical Openness offers a groundbreaking exploration of what this multifaceted, double-sided open card entails and how it has affected our being in the world. With a holistic approach, it focuses on studying the postcard’s specific way of being and performing, a particular ontology that opens up what is constitutively implicated in such an apparently trivial artifact.

The book, organized into four parts, meticulously unveils the postcard’s political, technological, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions, ending with a coda correlating the postcard’s radical openness to G. Klimt’s painting, Nuda Veritas (1899) in reference to the scope of truth. By examining the postcard’s complex worldwide history, its socio-cultural significance, and its global effect, the book reveals hidden stories shedding light on its impact on photography, printing, marketing, trade, and business practices and exposes the aesthetic, communicative, and ethical qualities that lie behind the enormous success of postcards at the turn of the 20th century.

This comprehensive study is positioned as a thought-provoking invitation to scholars and students interested in material culture, media studies, and human interactions, as well as to history enthusiasts, art lovers, and postcard collectors. Offering a distinctive contribution, the book not only fills a void in the literature but also encourages readers to question and reflect on the transformative power inherent in the postcard's 'radical openness,' presenting a novel and unparalleled analysis of this seemingly trivial yet culturally significant object.

Biography

Author(s):  Mariluz Restrepo is Professor Emerita, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá). Well-known for her research, lectures, and publications referring to theories of representation, interpretation, and communication; aesthetic and rhetorical views; teaching practices, and contemporary cultures, she is the author of over 100 articles and various books in English and Spanish.

Reviews

"This book offers a philosophical look at postcards that have been in vogue in the West since their creation around 1870 until today, when new communication technologies have practically eliminated them. This book focuses on studying, from a holistic perspective, the particular way of being and acting of the postcard, a particular ontology that opens up what is constitutively implied in such an apparently trivial artifact. In short, it is a delightful book, which will invite thought to those who have used postcards for many years, perhaps without paying much attention to them, and to all those interested in the philosophy of culture."
- Professor Emeritus Jaime Nubiola, University of Navarra