The self in crisis : watching Mad Men and Homeland with Girard and Hegel

Research work in the humanities in general, and in philosophy in particular, is today looked at with a certain degree of suspicion, for various and, sometimes, even opposed reasons. On one hand, work on subtle epistemological questions and/or historical analysis of the thought of the past philosophers is regarded as a navel-gazing activity, otiose at best, wasteful at worst. On the other hand, when philosophy and intellectual analysis come to focus on popular culture phenomena, such as comics, movies, and TV programs, they are regarded as trivializing ideas and as committing themselves to marginal and eventually unimportant work. One possible solution to this dilemma is to dismiss the critical role of the humanities in its entirety. Another possible solution is to try to show that it is actually possible to look at popular phenomena as instances of more profound dynamics currently operating at social, cultural, and psychological levels, and to make sense of them by subjecting them to a critical analysis that connects them with ideas and conceptual frameworks. Unsurprisingly, it is the latter strategy that is adopted here.