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Actor-Networks in Music History: Clarifications and Critiques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

BENJAMIN PIEKUT
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Abstract

This article offers clarifications and critiques of actor-network theory and its usefulness for music historiography. Reviewing the work of ANT theorists Bruno Latour, Annemarie Mol, and other social theorists (such as Georgina Born and Anna Tsing), the author explains that ANT is a methodology, not a theory. As a general introduction, the author outlines ANT's methodological presuppositions about human and non-human agency, action, ontology, and performance. He then examines how these methodological principles affect three concerns of music-historical interest: influence, genre, and context. In conclusion, he addresses problems related to temporality, critique, and reflexivity. He draws on music-historical examples after 1960: John Cage, the Jazz Composer's Guild, Henry Cow, Iggy Pop, and the Velvet Underground.

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Articles
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Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , September 2014 , pp. 191 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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