Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen uses archetypical storytelling, or mythology, and explores its respective meanings through the use of all media genres--from social to cinema.

Myths such as Narcissus’ reflection, Pandora’s box, and Plato’s cave have been used to frame modern technological dangers; often to describe people absorbed in their own digital reflections. Such speculation either purports that technology has a magical power or else that technology merely represents human nature unchanged from the myth’s inception. But those accounts ignore the paradoxical understandings of the power relationships allegorized, where people are manipulated by higher forces beyond their comprehension. Working from the assumption that capitalism rather than God is the highest power, this book examines mythic anticipations of the screen and digital technology from European literature, poetry, folklore and philosophy. Digital technology and social media are approached not as reflections of human nature but capitalist ideology’s power to enchant. To this end, Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen also surveys a diverse variety of films, digital media and contemporary artworks to understand and critique how myths are reimagined today.

"Aleks Wansbrough’s Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen is a multilayered, highly accessible, discursive and illuminating interdisciplinary critique of late-capitalist entertainment culture beyond the screen. Its rigorous theoretical arguments are quite elegant, sound and persuasive. Aleks’s deft handling of the various engaging ideas, theoretical frameworks and an undeniable self-reflexive understanding of his subject shines through every aspect of the book. But above all, his technological knowledge of the subject is as equally first-rate as is his theoretical command of conducting a lively, refreshing and far-reaching investigation into this topic." - John Conomos, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow at Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia

"Capitalism and the Enchanted Screen is a revealing new study of the way in which digital cultures and their technologies service capitalist imperatives. Wansbrough cleverly approaches our networked lives through the lens of mythic stories and their continuing resonances, discovering that our screens are mesmeric tools par excellence. This is a provocative, important book." - Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor in Film Studies, University of Sydney, Australia

"A highly intelligent, rigorous and well-argued book." - Alphaville