Norman M. Klein
Klein (born 1945) is an American urban and media historian, as well as an author of fictional works. In 2011, the Los Angeles Times put Klein's 1997 book The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory on its "Best L.A.
Norman M. Klein
- Name
- Norman M.
- Born
- 1945
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York
- Field
- Media Historian, Social Critic, Novelist, Educator
- Training
- University of Southern California; University of Illinois; University of Minnesota; Brooklyn College Cinema, Professional Writing, and History
- Awards
- Graham Foundation, Art Center Faculty Enrichment Grant, California Council for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation Creative Leave
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- journalist · historian · illustrator · graphic artist · cultural critic
- Fields
- illustration · graphics · art history
- Education
- Brooklyn College
- Languages
- English
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q26702595 · wikipedia · Norman M. Klein
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The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Norman M. Klein • Born — 1945 • Birthplace — Brooklyn, New York • Field — Media Historian, Social Critic, Novelist, Educator • Training — University of Southern California; University of Illinois; University of Minnesota; Brooklyn College Cinema, Professional Writing, and History • Awards — Graham Foundation, Art Center Faculty Enrichment Grant, California Council for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation Creative Leave
Documentary record
Norman M. Klein (born 1945) is described as a “Kulturkritiker” in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Norman M. Klein was born in 1945.
Early life
Early life
Born in Brooklyn, Klein grew up in an immigrant neighborhood where he regularly heard people tell stories that were partly true and partly not, which informed his view of people's personal histories. In 1966, he earned a B.A. in history at Brooklyn College and then went on to the University of Minnesota, where he earned an M.A. in French Intellectual History in 1968. Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began teaching at California Institute of the Arts before earning his M. F. A. in Cinema and Professional Writing from the University of Southern California.
Career
Career
Since 1974, Klein has been a professor in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts, where he is on the faculty of both the Master's Program in Aesthetics and Politics and the Center for Integrated Media. As layered systems that resemble certain genres of games and other media narrative formats, Klein's novels primarily offer literary alternatives. Having coined the term "scripted space" in 1998, Klein (with Margo Bistis) coined "Wunder roman" in 2012 to characterize a particular kind of picaresque novel whose parts function as a narrative engine. In 2004, the Beall Center for Art and Technology organized a retrospective of Klein's work. Klein has been a professor in the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts for over four decades.
Museum catalog essays
Museum catalog essays
Klein has written catalog essays for Doug Aitken, Chip Lord, "The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearance of the Outside," "More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness," "Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974-1999," Simon Denny, Kutluğ Ataman, Karina Nimmerfall, Rossen Crow, Peter Friedl, Christian Jankowski, Bjørn Melhus, George Stone, "Las Vegas Aesthetics," "Animations," "Au-Delà du Spectacle," "Reading California," Martin Kippenberger, and Helter Skelter.
Identity
Identity
What the record establishes about Norman M. Klein is recorded with the occupation cultural critic. Klein is recorded with the occupation graphic artist. Klein is recorded as journalist, historian, illustrator, graphic artist and cultural critic.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1945
Norman M. Klein was born on 1 January 1945.
Digital media theory
Klein's most cited publications on digital media include "After the Crash: Imagining New Paradigms for the Study of Collective Memory," "Labor, Architecture and the New Feudalism: Urban Space as Experience," "Spaces Between Traveling Through Bleeds, Apertures, and Wormholes inside the Database Novel," and "Media as an Instrument of Power."
Works (books and multimedia projects)
• Tales of the Floating Class, Writings 1982-2017: Essays and Fictions on Globalization and Neo-Feudalism. Los Angeles. Golden Spike Press (2018) • The Imaginary 20th Century co-authored with Margo Bistis- a book (2016) and media narrative (2014) • Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales (2006) • The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects (2004) • Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986 (novella and DVD) (2003) Bleeding Through won a Special Award for New Media at the 2004 Split Film Festival. One of three nominations for the "Image Award" at transmediale.04, Bleeding Through won second prize. • The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (1997/2008) • 7 Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon (1993) • Twentieth-Century Art Theory (1990) • Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict (1990)
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q26702595: Norman M. Klein
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Norman M. Klein”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Norman M. Klein, revision 1371752193 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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References
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Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
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The identifiers under which Norman M. Klein may be traced in institutional catalogues.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Illustration
5,224 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Norman ArlottIllustrator
- Norman AultIllustrator
- Norman BluhmIllustrator
- Norman BridwellIllustrator
- Norman RockwellIllustrator
- Norman SaundersIllustrator
- Norman WilkinsonIllustrator
- Norman YatesIllustrator
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