The Server: A Media History From The Present To The Baroque

Description

A cutting-edge media history on a perennially fascinating topic, which attempts to answer the crucial question: Who is in charge, the servant or the master?? Though classic servants like the butler or the governess have largely vanished, the Internet is filled with servers: web, ftp, mail, and others perform their daily drudgery, going about their business noiselessly and unnoticed. Why then are current-day digital drudges called servers? Markus Krajewski explores this question by going from the present back to the Baroque to study historical aspects of service through various perspectives, be it the servants’ relationship to architecture or their function in literary or scientific contexts. At the intersection of media studies, cultural history, and literature, this work recounts the gradual transition of agency from human to nonhuman actors to show how the concept of the digital server stems from the classic role of the servant. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 2 Title - Complete......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Quote......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Introduction to the English Edition: Jeeves Transatlantic......Page 10 Introduction: Listen, James......Page 14 Part One - Objects: Assistants, Analog......Page 28 Chapter 1 - Masters/Servants: Everyone Is a Subaltern......Page 30 Chapter 2 - The Servant as Information Center......Page 99 Chapter 3 - In Waiting......Page 137 Part Two - The Interregnum of th Subject......Page 180 Chapter 4 - Holding Reins: On Demons and Other Ministering Spirits of Science......Page 182 Chapter 5 - Channel Service......Page 227 Chapter 6 - At the Stove......Page 263 Part Three - Diener, Digital......Page 308 Chapter 7 - Agents: The Lord of (the) Things......Page 310 Epilogue: Idle Time......Page 352 Notes......Page 370 Bibliography......Page 402 Index......Page 440