Posthuman Lear: Reading Shakespeare in the Anthropocene

Published: 02/26/2016

Part scholarship, part journalism, part ecological screed, this book may read like a mashup of critical perspectives. Like other current investigations into the ecological significance of early modern literature, the account of King Lear offered here draws on different and sometimes contrasting interpretive methods: cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, literary historicism and what is called the new materialism. Moreover, the book reflects on the broad global setting of eco-materialism’s themes of catastrophe and enmeshed co-existence, using contemporary examples from Japan, New Mexico, Finland, and India, all while jumping back to Shakespeare’s early modern England. … Those interested in ecology might not be interested in the history of Renaissance literacy. And those interested in the scholarship on Shakespeare’s King Lear might not be interested in accounts of tsunami stones or radioactive waste sites. But they should be. … Because the proverbial clock is ticking. What Hamlet said about readiness? Well, it’s happening. The sparrow has already fallen.

~Craig Dionne, Posthuman Lear

Speculations V: Aesthetics in the 21st Century

Imprint:

Published: 05/15/2014

Ever since the turn of the century aesthetics has steadily gained momentum as a central field of study across the disciplines. No longer sidelined, aesthetics has grown in confidence. While this recent development brings with it a return to the work of the canonical authors (most notably Baumgarten and Kant), some contemporary scholars reject the[…]

An Object-Oriented Ontology© on Amphetamines and Psilocybin: Neomedievalist Theory-Fiction Is Here

by EILEEN JOY At last, the rival Confraternity of SpeculativeRealism® has its missing subject! Here, the human-object/thing sits still-as-stone, dis-connected from one regime in order to connect to another. As such, this book is a contribution to Thing Theory, but of a very queer and wonky kind. An object-oriented ontology© on amphetamines and psilocybin. (Simon[…]

thN Lng folk 2go: Investigating Future Premoderns™

Published: 10/13/2013

Neomedievalisms are cultural practices that breathe a bouquet of premoderns as permanent rehearsals of coming events. Where medievalists may be prone to police the post-medieval weald for inauthentic medievalisms, neomedievalists embrace the articulation and mobilisation of metahistorical anachronisms. To the medievalist, medievalisms provide powerful indexes that reveal how post-medieval societies have variously imagined ‘little middle ages’ to[…]

Speculations IV: Speculative Realism

Imprint:

Published: 06/05/2013

With this special volume of Speculations, the editors wanted to challenge the contested term “speculative realism,” offering scholars who have some involvement with it a space to voice their opinions of the network of ideas commonly associated with the name. Whilst undoubtedly born under speculative realist auspices, Speculations has never tried to be the gospel[…]

The Disaster Is Up to Us: Julian Yates and Liza Blake on Metaphysics, Composing, and Kitchening

Figure 1. Douglas Hodge as Titus and Sarah Rees as Lavinia in 2006 production of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus at the Globe Theatre by EILEEN JOY [cross-posted to In The Middle] Composition may be the recipe for deriving a practice from Object Oriented Ontology, or Speculative Realism, but the disaster is up to us. –Liza Blake,[…]

Speculative Medievalisms: Discography

Published: 01/17/2013

Proceedings from the two Speculative Medievalisms symposia, held at King’s College London (Jan. 2011) and The Graduate Center, City University of New York (Sep. 2011), and organized by The Petropunk Collective (Eileen Joy, Anna Klosowska, Nicola Masciandaro, and Michael O’Rourke). These interdisciplinary events were dedicated to dialogue and cross-contamination between traditional concepts of speculatio, present-minded premodern[…]

Speculative September NYC

September 2011 promises to be a perfect storm moment for the convergence of Speculative Realists and Object-Oriented Ontologists in New York City from about September 8th through the 17th, with collective appearances by Jane Bennett, Levi Bryant, Graham Harman, Timothy Harman, Steven Shaviro, Ben Woodard, and others. A more detailed [if still a bit tentative][…]