Autonomedia Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl

First published in France in 1999, Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl dissects the impossibility of love under Empire. The Young-Girl is consumer societys total product and model citizen: whatever type of Young-Girl she may embody, whether by whim or concerted performance, she can only seduce by consuming. Filled with the language of French womens magazines, rooted in Prousts figure of Albertine and the amusing misery of (teenage) romance in Witold Gombrowiczs Ferdydurke, and informed by Pierre Klossowskis notion of living currency and libidinal economy, Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl diagnosesand makes visiblea phenomenon that is so ubiquitous as to have become transparent.