{{short description|American cultural critic}} thumb|alt=portrait of Steven Shaviro, facing right|Steven Shaviro (2007) '''Steven Shaviro''' ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|ə|ˈ|v|ɪr|oʊ}}; born 1954) is an American academic, philosopher, and cultural critic whose areas of interest include film theory, time, science fiction, panpsychism, capitalism, affect and subjectivity. He earned a B.A. in English in 1975, M.A. in English in 1978, and a Ph.D. in English in 1981, all from Yale University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vita |url=http://www.shaviro.com/Vita.html |access-date=2023-03-30 |website=www.shaviro.com}}</ref> From 1984 to 2004, he was a professor of English at the University of Washington,<ref name="Avant-Prof: An Interview With Steve Shaviro">{{Cite web|title=Avant-Prof: An Interview With Steve Shaviro|url=http://www.altx.com/interviews/steven.shaviro.html|last=Carpenter|first=Novella|date=|website=www.altx.com|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref> and since 2004 teaches film, culture and English at Wayne State University, where he is the DeRoy Professor of English.
==Career== His most widely read book is ''Doom Patrols'', a "theoretical fiction" that outlines the state of postmodernism during the early 1990s, using poetic language, personal anecdotes, and creative prose. He has also written extensively about music videos as an artform.
Shaviro has written a book about film theory, ''The Cinematic Body'', which according to the preface is "about postmodernism, the politics of human bodies, constructions of masculinity, and the aesthetics of masochism."<ref name="Avant-Prof: An Interview With Steve Shaviro" /> It also examines Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection and the dominance of Lacanian tropes in contemporary academic film theory. According to Shaviro, the use of psychoanalysis has mirrored the actions of a cult, with its own religious texts (essays by Freud and Lacan).
Shaviro's book ''Connected, Or, What It Means to Live in the Network Society'', appeared in 2003. A later book, ''Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze, and Aesthetics'' was published in May 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Interview with Steven Shaviro|url=http://figureground.org/interview-with-steven-shaviro/|last=Ralón|first=Laureano|date=2013-02-22|website=Figure/Ground|language=en-US|issn=2292-0811|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref> Five years later, he wrote a book about speculative realism in philosophy, inspired by Alfred North Whitehead.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Interview with Steven Shaviro, author of 'The Universe of Things'|url=https://www.upress.umn.edu/press/press-clips/interview-with-steven-shaviro-author-of-the-universe-of-things|author=rsharp|date=2014-11-28|website=University of Minnesota Press|language=en|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Universe of Things|url=https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-universe-of-things|website=University of Minnesota Press|language=en|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref>
In 2023 Shaviro wrote in a Facebook post, "Although I do not advocate violating federal and state criminal codes, I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down. [...] The exemplary historical figure in this regard is Sholem Schwarzbard [link added], who assassinated the anti-Semitic butcher Symon Petliura, rather than trying to shout him down. Remember that Schwarzbard was acquitted by a jury, which found his action justified."<ref name="McDuffie 2023">{{cite news |last1=McDuffie |first1=Candace |title=Michigan Professor Suspended for Saying It's 'More Admirable To Kill a Racist' Speaker Than Protest |url=https://www.theroot.com/michigan-professor-suspended-for-saying-it-s-more-admi-1850277759 |access-date=30 March 2023 |work=The Root |date=29 March 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Stunson 2023"/><ref name=NationalReview2023>{{Cite web |title=Prof Suspended for Post Saying It’s ‘Admirable to Kill a Racist, Homophobic, or Transphobic Speaker’ |author=Jeff Zymeri |work=National Review |date=27 March 2023 |access-date=19 September 2024 |url= https://www.nationalreview.com/news/prof-suspended-for-post-saying-its-admirable-to-kill-a-racist-homophobic-or-transphobic-speaker}}</ref> Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson suspended Shaviro with pay and referred the matter to law enforcement.<ref name="Stunson 2023">{{cite news |last=Stunson |first=Mike |date=28 March 2023 |title=Professor's Facebook post justified murder, Michigan university says. He's suspended |newspaper=Lexington Herald-Leader |url=https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article273674805.html |access-date=30 March 2023}}</ref> Shaviro was not indicted or charged for any matter related to this suspension.
== Bibliography == * Shaviro, Steven (1990). ''Passion and Excess: Blanchot, Bataille, and Literary Theory'', Tallahassee: Florida State University Press. * ——— (1993). ''The Cinematic Body'', Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. * ——— (1997): ''Doom Patrols: A Theoretical Fiction about Postmodernism'', London: Serpent's Tail. * ——— (2003). ''Connected, or What it Means to Live in the Network Society'', Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. * ——— (2009). ''Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze, and Aesthetics'', Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. * ——— (2010). ''Post Cinematic Affect'', Winchester: Zer0 books. * ——— (2014). ''The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism'', Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. * ——— (2016). ''Discognition'', Repeater Books. * ——— (2017). ''Digital Music Videos'', Rutgers University Press, 2017.
== References == <references />
== External links == * Shaviro's [http://shaviro.com/ website] * Podcast of lecture at the UCD Humanities Institute - [http://www.ucd.ie/humanities/events/podcasts/2012/steven-shaviro/ Discognition] * [http://www.bernardg.com/podcast/speculative-futures-steven-shaviro-and-alexander-galloway Speculative Futures] - podcast discussion with Shaviro and Alexander R. Galloway, moderated by Eugene Thacker from November 2014.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaviro, Steven}} Category:20th-century American philosophers Category:21st-century American philosophers Category:American critics Category:Continental philosophers Category:Film theorists Category:Living people Category:American philosophers of art Category:American philosophers of technology Category:Postmodernists Category:University of Washington faculty Category:Wayne State University faculty Category:Yale University alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)