Activist Humanist - Form and Method in the Climate Crisis

An argument that humanists have the tools-and the responsibility-to mobilize political power to tackle climate changeAs climate catastrophes intensify, why do literary and cultural studies scholars so often remain committed to the separation of aesthetic study from the nitty-gritty of political change? In this thought-provoking book, Caroline Levine makes the case for an alternative view, arguing that humanists have the tools to mobilize political power-and the responsibility to use those tools to avert the worst impacts of global warming. Building on the theory developed in her award-winning book, Forms, Levine shows how formalist methods can be used in the fight for climate justice.Countering scholars in the environmental humanities who embrace only "modest gestures of care"-and who seem to have moved directly to "mourning" our inevitable environmental losses-Levine argues that large-scale, practical environmental activism should be integral to humanists' work. She identifies three major infrastructural forms crucial to sustaining collective life: routines, pathways, and enclosures. Crisscrossing between art works and public works-from urban transportation to television series and from food security programs to rhyming couplets-she considers which forms might support stability and predictability in the face of growing precarity. Finally, bridging the gap between academic and practical work, Levine offers a series of questions and exercises intended to guide readers into political action. The Activist Humanist provides an essential handbook for prospective activist-scholars.

Product details

• Authors: Caroline Levine
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 17.10.2023
• EAN: 9780691250588
• ISBN: 978-0-691-25058-8
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 254 mm x 15 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Climate Change, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Politics, Political science & theory, Literature: history & criticism, Literary theory, Political science and theory, Literature: history and criticism