Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Will Kitchen, "Culture, Capital and Carnival: Modern Media and the Representation of Work"
Date: October 10, 2025
Host: New Books
Guest: Will Kitchen

Overview

This episode features author and academic Will Kitchen discussing his newest book: Culture, Capital and Carnival: Modern Media and the Representation of Work (Bloomsbury, 2025). The conversation dives into how contemporary media—ranging from literature and classic films to globally recognized TV shows—portrays work and labor. Drawing from critical theory, economic sociology, and a distinctive use of the "carnivalesque" (via Bakhtin and Bernstein), Kitchen analyzes not just what these portrayals mean for popular culture, but how they reflect, invert, and sometimes mask the realities of modern labor, precarity, and aspiration.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Write About Media Representations of Work?

[02:06 – 05:04]

• Will Kitchen traces the roots of his project to his academic journey—starting with a PhD on Franz Liszt, then moving through philosophy, economics, and critical theory, eventually drawn to the ubiquity of "work" in everyday life and media.
• His position as a "precariously employed academic" influenced the focus, seeking to build a "logical bridge between... deeply rooted theory... and something easy to justify in terms of economic value."
• Notable Quote:

  "Work had become a topic that was turning up everywhere in terms of the way I started to view things... I was really interested in the cultural expectations that are placed upon modern individuals to be successful, productive, and proactive."
  — Will Kitchen [02:44]

2. Theoretical Framework: The Carnivalesque

[06:13 – 09:38]

• Kitchen's analysis builds on Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the "carnivalesque"—a moment where societal norms are inverted and hierarchies are mocked or upended.
• He critiques naive applications of the carnivalesque as necessarily emancipatory, drawing instead on Michael André Bernstein’s "Bitter Carnival," which suggests carnivalesque rituals are often conservative and integrate potentially revolutionary energies back into the system.
• Kitchen meticulously sought expert peer-review, notably from Professor Sue Weiss, to ensure intellectual rigor.
• Notable Quote:

  "...the Carnivalesque as more of a conservative idea, a ritual of integration and catharsis that allows for potentially revolutionary energies to be displaced in harmless ways."
  — Will Kitchen [07:57]

3. Case Study: Orwell’s "Keep the Aspidistra Flying"

[11:15 – 13:52]

• Unlike Orwell’s more famous works, this novel offers a psychological study of creative, impoverished individuals wrestling with moral dilemmas around work, wealth, and authenticity.
• The protagonist's refusal to commodify his art echoes broader tensions of creative labor in capitalist societies.
• Kitchen compares Orwell to Dostoevsky’s "Notes from Underground," emphasizing the recurring motif of resentment, guilt, and unattainable wealth as major influences on both personal psyche and cultural output.
• Notable Quote:

  "...the worldview of the creative artist is so often mixed up with economic resentment, envy or guilt. And these are really important topics for critical analysis of culture and labor today..."
  — Will Kitchen [12:41]

4. The "Lesson of the Master": Envy Turned Upside Down

[14:31 – 17:18]

• Henry James’s "The Lesson of the Master" is used as a critical trope throughout Kitchen’s book. It exemplifies the carnivalesque pleasure audiences take in seeing the privileged brought low—and how this can serve to ideologically soothe inequalities.
• This motif appears widely: from "Citizen Kane" to "There Will Be Blood," and in sitcoms like "The Office"—bosses are mocked, revealing their misery or incompetence as a kind of catharsis for viewers.
• Notable Quote:

  "...this pleasurable carnivalesque catharsis is actually an ideological mystification, something that deserves to maintain inequality."
  — Will Kitchen [16:48]

5. Defining "Work": Historical and Conceptual Perspectives

[18:48 – 22:33]

• Kitchen’s definition is rooted in economic sociology, spanning from classical capitalism, bureaucratic models, to neoliberalism.
• He lays out three "useful periods":
  • Classical (Marx)
  • Bureaucratic (Taylor, Ford, post-war welfare state)
  • Neoliberal (financialization, precarity, flexible labor)
• Work is productive behavior shaped by the "cultural metaphysics" of these shifting regimes, not just "employment."
• Notable Quote:

  "...productive behavior that has its values influenced by the cultural metaphysics of this tiered modern capitalist system or worldview."
  — Will Kitchen [21:07]

6. Focus on "The Office": Subversion or Integration?

[24:25 – 27:39]

• "The Office" (both UK and US) emerges as a central text. Its carnivalesque antics (pranks, play, ridiculing bosses) may appear subversive but often ultimately reinforce capitalist ideals—e.g., Jim's transformation from prankster to entrepreneur echoes the myth of creative disruption and self-made success.
• Kitchen traces the show’s American version to Benjamin Franklin’s influence on capitalism and how figures like Michael Scott—though lampooned—still symbolically embody authority, thus containing revolts within safe boundaries.
• Notable Quote:

  "Jim’s subversive pranks then become retrospectively the proof that the audience needs that he could make good if he wanted to... So there's a lot of fascinating approaches to the Office with a show as big as that..."
  — Will Kitchen [26:41]

7. Comparing "Captain Phillips" and "Dog Day Afternoon": Outsiders, Leadership, and Neoliberalism

[28:39 – 33:17]

• Kitchen analyzes hostage dramas as a lens for labor and authority: both involve outsiders who, in contesting power (via piracy or robbery), inadvertently re-enact the very structures they challenge.
• He draws on Jacques Rancière’s idea of 'redistribution of the sensible'—disruptions in political visibility and voice.
• In "Captain Phillips," the Somali pirate Musa identifies as "captain," absorbing and mimicking capitalist ideologies of labor, even as the system ultimately reifies violent reassertions of dominant order.
• Notable Quote:

  "...figures like these outsiders gradually adopt... qualities which associate this liberal disruptive force with an emerging and conservative economic agency..."
  — Will Kitchen [30:19]

• Critical Moment:

  "...the assassination scene at the end... shows how people who... the ending when... moment of authoritarian power that whatever cannot be... retained by the ideal of geocapitalism has to be eliminated..."
  — Will Kitchen [32:38]

8. "Boiling Point": Contemporary Labor Under Pressure

[35:23 – 39:29]

• This recent film about a high-stress kitchen is a metaphor for new capitalism’s demands and constraints. Its single-take, high-pressure style highlights hierarchies, burnout, and both skilled and unskilled labor.
• While the bulk of the narrative is a searing critique, the ending seems to individualize blame, blunting its systemic critique by locating solutions (or failures) in a single character rather than the broader system.
• Notable Quote:

  "...the ending encourages us to find an individualistic solution to the narrative problems. Rather than anything collective or universal..."
  — Will Kitchen [37:45]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On research approach:

  "I had to write three monographs in order to make that transition in a meaningful and natural way, and one that was satisfying for me, but I think I got there."
  — Will Kitchen [04:44]

• On peer review:

  "...the peer reviewers had positive things to say about the approach I adopted and the use of Bernstein, which is not an approach that's typically used in Bakhtin studies."
  — Will Kitchen [09:10]

• On contemporary relevance:

  "Boiling Point came along as a good choice for me because it was a film that I needed to read... that doesn't quite fit or prevents them from offering a fully rounded criticism of the capitalist worldview."
  — Will Kitchen [35:29]

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:06] - Inspirations and genesis of the book
• [06:13] - Bakhtin’s Carnivalesque and Bernstein’s Critique
• [11:15] - "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" and creative labor
• [14:31] - "The Lesson of the Master" and envy in culture
• [18:48] - Defining "Work" across capitalism's regimes
• [24:25] - Deep dive into "The Office": ambition, subversion, authority
• [28:39] - Comparing “Captain Phillips” and “Dog Day Afternoon”
• [31:34] - Critical moments in "Captain Phillips"
• [35:23] - "Boiling Point": pressure hierarchy, modern work
• [40:13] - Future research directions and ongoing projects

Future Directions

[40:13 – End]

• Kitchen’s next lines of inquiry build on the links between Romanticism, modern and postmodern cultural forms, and the continued evolution of labor representations—especially the notion of ‘vision’ in leadership and labor. He is collaborating with other institutions on potential new projects.

Tone & Language

Kitchen and the host maintain an academic but engaging tone. Explanations are clear, approachable, and interwoven with references to critical theory, contemporary examples, and relatable cultural artifacts. Kitchen emphasizes the importance of rigorous methodology, interdisciplinary scholarship, and peer review.

For listeners: This episode is rich in theory, accessible case studies, and memorable insights about how work is not just depicted in media, but actively shapes how we think (and feel) about labor, success, subversion, and the social order in our lives.