Exploring Luddism
Exploring the evolving image of Luddism
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Steven E. Jones, PhD |
The Luddites were early 19th-century British textile workers who proclaimed themselves followers of the mythical “Ned Ludd” and smashed mill machinery they saw as threatening their livelihoods. In his new book, Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism (Routledge, 2006), Professor of English Steven E. Jones, PhD, explores not the original Luddite movement, but rather the evolution of the image and representation of Luddism. Examining novels, movies, poetry, speeches, and social movements such as the simultaneously pro- and anti-technology 1960s counterculture and anti-globalization activism in the 1990s, Jones looks at how an anonymous collective movement came to be identified with an individualistic personal conviction.
Jones’s areas of interest are Romantic literature and textual studies—the history of how texts are made and received, from printing presses to digital technology. “Luddism exists at the crossroads of those fields,” Jones explains. “When I taught Romantic literature, the Luddites would come up. I became interested in how the myth of Luddism began to be represented and transformed into what we now know as Neo-Luddism.
“For someone like me who is interested in the line between history and literature, it’s a fascinating point of departure.”
Jones’s next book, due out this year, is a textual studies-based exploration of how video games are produced, disseminated, and understood.