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The Work of Literature in an Age of Post-Truth

The Work of Literature in an Age of Post-Truth

by Christopher Schaberg (Author), Christopher Schaberg (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2018

    $42.39
Synopsis

What is the role of literary studies in an age of Twitter threads and viral news? If the study of literature today is not just about turning to classic texts with age-old questions, neither is it a rejection of close reading or critical inquiry. Through the lived experience of a humanities professor in a rapidly changing world, this book explores how the careful study of literature and culture may be precisely what we need to navigate our dizzying epoch of post-truth politics and ecological urgency.

$42.39

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20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 168
 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 26 Jul 2018
ISBN 10: 1501334298
ISBN 13: 9781501334290
Book Overview: Part meditation, part manifesto, this book spurs us-in a climate of so-called post-truth-to consider and value the importance of the humanities and the training in rigorous thinking it provides.

Media Reviews
An urgent and searching reappraisal of what it means to read and to teach literature in this post-truth context ... [Schaberg's] slim and highly readable book is the product of a teacher's attempt to become re-enchanted with his trade ... It is candid and relaxed, and full of insight, as well as Schaberg's enthusiasm for and anxieties about literature and literary studies today. * Times Higher Education *
The Work of Literature in an Age of Post-Truth captures the essence of what it is like to experience the wildness of the 21st century as an observant, thinking human. The banalities of everyday life mix here with the political urgencies and mediatic confusion of our age. Schaberg has sketched a convincing portrait of this unsettling moment. * Christy Wampole, Associate Professor of French, Princeton University, USA, and author of Rootedness: The Ramifications of a Metaphor (2016) *
Earth to reader: come in, do you read me, over. Think about it. Ecological awareness implies taking into account a hugely expanded set of nonhuman beings. This means more nuances and ambiguities. There are people who have trained to tolerate plenty of both: they are called literature scholars. Literary ways of sustaining patriarchal racist heteronormative (and so on) are done: we know too much now. But that doesn't mean the journey of reading literature is over, as if only white guys wrote poems. This rapidly cascading kaleidoscope of lovely readings and thoughts about reading, by the generous and imaginatively mercurial Christopher Schaberg, shows you how, amounting to a guidebook on proclaiming the significance of the Humanities in visualizing different futures. * Timothy Morton, Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English, Rice University, USA, and author of Being Ecological (2018) *
Schaberg asks us to consider the work of literature not so much as an antidote to 'post-truth' political culture in the USA as an alternative way of life. Here literature figures as lively engagement with the world, a practice of enthusiasm and commitment. * Stephanie LeMenager, Moore Endowed Professor of English and Environmental Studies, University of Oregon, USA, and author of Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century (2014) *
Schaberg takes readers to various locations, allowing them to eavesdrop on his thoughts ... Schaberg soars when talking about language. * Publishers Weekly *
Schaberg finds plenty of reasons to worry in his new book [...] But he also sees reasons why literary study is more important than ever. * Inside Higher Ed *
Author Bio
Christopher Schaberg is Dorothy Harrell Brown Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans, USA. He is the author of The Textual Life of Airports (2013), The End of Airports (2015), and Airportness (2017), as well as co-editor of Deconstructing Brad Pitt (2014), all published by Bloomsbury. His writing has appeared in, among other publications, The Atlantic, Inside Higher Ed, The Los Angeles Review of Books, 3:AM Magazine, Public Books, and The New Inquiry.