The Server

Download or read book The Server written by Markus Krajewski and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cutting†‘edge media history on a perennially fascinating topic, which attempts to answer the crucial question: Who is in charge, the servant or the master?†‹ Though classic servants like the butler or the governess have largely vanished, the Internet is filled with servers: web, ftp, mail, and others perform their daily drudgery, going about their business noiselessly and unnoticed. Why then are current†‘day digital drudges called servers? Markus Krajewski explores this question by going from the present back to the Baroque to study historical aspects of service through various perspectives, be it the servants’ relationship to architecture or their function in literary or scientific contexts. At the intersection of media studies, cultural history, and literature, this work recounts the gradual transition of agency from human to nonhuman actors to show how the concept of the digital server stems from the classic role of the servant.