Urban horror : neoliberal post-socialism and the limits of visibility

Abstract

How is the relationship between neoliberal economics and post-socialist politics entangled in the field of aesthetics, and what can radical perspectives on the limits of visibility provide for new forms of resistance emerging in the ‘era of hypermediality’ (p. 26)? These are the questions that drive the narrative arc throughout Erin Y. Huang’s concept-heavy monograph on ‘urban horror’ in recent film and art in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Taking its clues from the recent history of the Sinophone world, this innovative study is best situated in the field of media studies and Marxist geography; still, recent historians might benefit greatly from engaging with its sharp theoretical argument, challenging scholars not to reduce the study of neoliberalism to its economic, political or cultural dimensions.