'All about Nothing': Difference, Affect, and Seinfeld

摘要

Drawing on Lawrence Grossberg's work on affect, difference, and postmodernity, this article discusses Seinfeld as emblematic of new cultural forms that produce temporary structures of difference out of a general indifference or sameness. The author begins by discussing how incessant commodification of difference in advertising and consumer culture compromises the ability and desire of many people to make stable and lasting investments of affect in many traditional forms of difference. In this context, it is argued that Seinfelds appeal lies not so much in the comic defamiliarization of everyday life but in the creation of privatized strategies of ironic agency that allow the show's characters to create something out of nothing, difference out of sameness. The author concludes by assessing the broader political implications that attend these forms of agency.