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Mark Dery (born December 24, 1959)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Mark Dery" (accessed February 12, 2008). is an American writer, lecturer and
cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...
. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the term "
culture jamming Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It at ...
" and is generally credited with having coined the term "
Afrofuturism Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture ...
" in his essay "Black to the Future" in the anthology ''Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture.''Yaszek, Lisa. "Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, and the History of the Future". ''Socialism and Democracy'', vol.20, no.3, November 2006, pp.41–42. He writes about media and visual culture, especially fringe elements of culture for a wide variety of publications, from ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' to '' BoingBoing''.


Early life and education

Dery was born in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
. He grew up in
Chula Vista, California Chula Vista ( ; , ) is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the Largest cities in Southern California, seventh-most populous city in Southern California ...
. He earned a B.A. from
Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is ...
in 1982. He is of Anglo- Irish- Scottish descent with some distant French ancestry.


Teaching

From 2001 to 2009, Dery taught media criticism,
literary journalism Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts ...
, and the essay in the Department of Journalism at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. In January 2000, he was appointed Chancellor's Distinguished Fellow at the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
, Irvine. In the summer of 2009, he was a scholar in residence at the American Academy in Rome, Italy. In 2017, he taught "Dark Aesthetics" (the Gothic, the Grotesque, the Uncanny, the Abject, and other transgressive aesthetics) at Yale University."Bio/Photos?
. Mark Dery website. Retrieved May 31, 2019.


Writing career

An early contributor to the study of
cyberculture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...
and the cultural effects of the digital age, Dery has written for ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...
'', ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...
'', ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', ''
Lingua Franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
'', ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'', ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'', '' Spin'', ''
Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...
'', '' Salon.com'', ''BoingBoing'', and '' Cabinet'', among other publications. Dery’s books include monographs such as ''Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century'' (1996) as well as the edited anthology ''Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture'' (1994) and a collection of essays, ''I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: Drive-By Essays on American Dread, American Dreams'' (2012). Both ''Escape Velocity'' and ''I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts'' have been translated into other languages. In 1990, Dery's ''New York Times'' article "The Merry Pranksters and the Art of the Hoax" offered an early discussion in the mainstream media of the practice of " cultural jamming" by an emergent generation of activists.DeLaure, Marilyn, and Moritz Fink. "Introduction". In ''Culture Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance'', edited by Marilyn DeLaure and Moritz Fink. NYU Press, 2017, p. 7. In ''Flame Wars'', Dery wonders, in an essay titled "Black to the Future," why "so few African-Americans write science fiction, a genre whose close encounters with the Other – the stranger in a strange land – would seem uniquely suited to the concerns of African-American novelists?" In the piece, Dery interviews three African-American thinkers —
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
writer
Samuel R. Delany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...
, writer and musician Greg Tate, and
cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...
Tricia Rose — about different critical dimensions of
Afrofuturism Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture ...
, and it is in his introductory essay to "Black to the Future" that Dery coins the term '
Afrofuturism Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture ...
', which now figures prominently in studies of black technoculture. He defines it as:
Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth- century technoculture — and, more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future — might, for want of a better term, be called Afro futurism.
Dery's essay "Cotton Candy Autopsy: Deconstructing Psycho Killer Clowns" in ''The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink'' (1999) is his close reading of the "evil clown" meme. In 2018, Dery released a biography of the artist and illustrator Edward Gorey, entitled ''Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey''. Widely reviewed, the book is the first biography of the eccentric figure, putting Gorey's idiosyncratic creations into a more personal context.


Books

* ''Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs''. ''Open Magazine'' Pamphlet Series, 1993. * ''Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture'' (ed.).
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
Press, 1994. * ''Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century''.
Grove Press Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United S ...
, 1996. * ''The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink''.
Grove Press Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United S ...
, 1999. * ''I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: Drive-By Essays on American Dread, American Dreams''.
University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
, 2012. * ''Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey''.
Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...
, 2018,


References


External links


Mark Dery's website

"J.G. Ballard's Pre-Posthumous Memoir"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dery, Mark 1959 births Living people American male journalists American technology writers American people of English descent American people of Scottish descent American people of Irish descent American people of French descent New York University faculty Occidental College alumni Journalists from Boston