'Cultural Studies and the Extreme'

This chapter examines the contemporary cultural phenomenon of, and popular cultural ppreoccupation with 'the extreme', as this is manifested in a range of cultural products - from 'extreme makover' and other 'extreme' reality TV shows, through to extreme leisure activities and pastimes, and the general use of the extreme to refer to the quest for heightened sensory experiences available through consumption. It makes detailed reference to the ideas of Georges Bataille about how the activity of theorising itself is also (or should aim to be)an expression of the extreme; or, the 'boiling point' of the subject itself.