Piecing Together J. G. Ballard’s "The Atrocity Exhibition"

Marcin Tereszewski

doi:10.17951/lsmll.2020.44.2.75-82

Abstract

J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition can easily be classified as his most experimental novel, one that, more than any other of his works, succeeds in presenting, or perhaps representing, the fragmented condition of a media-saturated Western culture. On the surface, it does appear to be a postmodern and seemingly chaotic bricolage of pop iconography, landscapes, and medical references arranged non-linearly and without plot, and yet there is a unifying principle at work, anchoring the texts in a specific ideological context of 1960s Western culture. The main argument of this paper expands on Debord’s study of spectacle and regards The Atrocity Exhibition as a work that not only attempts to frustrate reading expectations, but also addresses the cultural shift towards spectacular society.

Highlights

The Atrocity Exhibition, a clear departure from his more traditional earlier works, can be regarded as his most experimental and least accessible work; it is one that, according to critics, more than any other of his previous novels or short stories succeeds in presenting, or perhaps representing, the fragmented condition of a media-statured Western culture
It does appear to be a postmodern and seemingly chaotic bricolage of pop iconography, landscapes, and medical references arranged non-linearly and without plot, and yet there is a unifying principle at work, anchoring the texts in a specific ideological context of 1960s Western culture
What the publishing history of this novel makes clear is that there is no one text that is The Atrocity Exhibition, all the more so because no one version was granted the authorial stamp of being the final, decisive version, which makes all of the editions, with and without illustrations, legitimate, even though the reading experience is greatly affected depending on which edition is read

Summary

Introduction

The Atrocity Exhibition, a clear departure from his more traditional earlier works, can be regarded as his most experimental and least accessible work; it is one that, according to critics, more than any other of his previous novels or short stories succeeds in presenting, or perhaps representing, the fragmented condition of a media-statured Western culture. The Atrocity Exhibition treads similar theoretical ground as Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, which

Results

Conclusion