THE RHETORICS OF THE eXtreme
Abstract
This paper traces the relation between bungee jumping as eXtreme sport and the experience culture that we live in. It is argued that the sublime has been commodified to suit consumers’ preferences and choices. The higher the bridge or drop, the more enticing and challenging the jump. The sublime experience of bungee jumping has been reduced to a “drug” that can be induced whenever a quick fix of adrenaline is needed. The difference between the Kantian sublime and the eXtreme sublime, as figured in bungee jumping and other extreme sports, is also considered. Some comparative notes are made between the Romantic sublime as figured in the landscapes of Friedrich and bungee jumping. Where the Romantic sublime still worked with a necessary distance between object and subject the contemporary extreme sublime attempts to momentously disrupt the distance and become one with the eventfulness of the sublime.Downloads
Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal webpage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in Scriptura, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
