Abstract:

This article assesses phatic communication now, when symbolic efficiency is in decline. As a result of neoliberal capitalism and industrialized social media, small talk is both obligatory and suffused with anxiety. Under disciplinary society, chitchat has been a threat to biopolitical control. Today, small talk is a form of surplus value that enters directly into the market. No longer a ritual of social facilitation, phatic communication takes on a pathological character. This article relies on psychoanalytic theory to complicate Paolo Virno’s take on the contemporary position of phatic language. In so doing, it asks: what does small talk become once the symbolic pact that ensured its efficacy has been broken?

摘要：

这篇文章评估了现在象征性效率正在下降的语言交流。由于新自由主义资本主义和工业化社交媒体，闲聊既是强制性的，又充满焦虑。在纪律严明的社会中，闲聊一直是对生命政治控制的威胁。今天，闲聊是一种直接进入市场的剩余价值形式。不再是一种社会促进的仪式，语言交流呈现出一种病态的特征。本文依赖于精神分析理论，使保罗·维尔诺对言语语言的当代立场的看法复杂化。在这样做的过程中，它问：一旦确保其效力的象征性契约被打破，闲聊会变成什么？