Rewiring intellectual history: Friedrich Kittler on the conversion between letter and spirit

Sutherland, Thomas (2025) Rewiring intellectual history: Friedrich Kittler on the conversion between letter and spirit. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities. (In Press)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Examining in detail one of Friedrich Kittler’s earliest published pieces of writing, 'Forgetting' (1979), this article characterizes said essay as an unconventional reconfiguration of intellectual history, focusing less upon thinkers’ specific ideas and more upon the historically variable systems by which these ideas are stored and transmitted (or are not, as the case may be). More specifically, it draws attention to Kittler’s critique of hermeneutics, which, in his view, dissimulates its status both as a machine for data storage and processing and as an instrument of power. Hermeneutics’ conceit that it can discover the 'spirit' behind the 'letter' of a text conceals the fact that its prescribed reading practices do not so much discover this spirit as create it – and in doing so, create an ideal of the self qua reader as well. And yet, it goes on to argue, Kittler’s own approach to history is actually not so dissimilar.

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