1st Edition
Globalization and Planetary Ethics New Terrains of Consciousness
This volume is a critical investigation into the contemporary phenomenon of the dissensus of the globe and the planet, and the new terrains of consciousness that need to be negotiated towards a possibility for transformation. It examines the possibilities of alternate, sustainable modes of being and existing in a world which requires a unified, ethical, biopolitical worldview. The book explores themes like philosophical posthumanism and planetary concerns; disruption of cultural and intellectual inequality; bodily movement through nomadic subjectivity; dystopic spatialities of game(re)play; globalization, and speculative imaginaries of the body; and theory of multiplicity. It also discusses the impact of COVID-19 on human beings, the role of the neoliberal media, the question of rights of robots and cyborgs in sci-fi movies, and representation of refugees in literature.
This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of English literature, political philosophy, cultural studies, literary cultures, post-colonial studies, critical theory, and social anthropology.
List of Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
SIMI MALHOTRA, SHRADDHA A. SINGH, AND ZAHRA RIZVI
PART I
Dissonance and Us 9
1 Portal, the Front, Wound: Three Metaphors to Explore the Planetary Crisis 11
JOFF P. N. BRADLEY
2 Philosophical Posthumanism and Planetary Concerns 29
FRANCESCA FERRANDO AND SHRADDHA A. SINGH
3 Move Over, Mona Lisa. Move Over, Jane Eyre: Disrupting the Cultural and Intellectual Inequality Pipeline 37
PEGGY LEVITT
4 Rethinking Metaphorical and Bodily Movement through Nomadic Subjectivity and Identity 50
VENYA PATEL
5 To Dream Again: Thoughts on Island Soundscapes and Environmentalism 65
PRIYA PARROTTA NATARAJAN
PART II
Discord, Dystopias, and Utopias 77
6 Becoming Utopian in a Threatened Order 79
TOM MOYLAN
7 Exploring Dystopic Spatialities of Game(re)play: A Study of Papers, Please and Orwell 93
ZAHRA RIZVI
8 Seeking a World of Their Own: Looking for ‘Human’ Rights in a Mechanized, Futuristic World 105
ARPITA SEN
9 Re-Orienting Reading: Ergodic Form of Mark Z. Danielewski’s Only Revolutions 120
AINEE BASIR
PART III
Disparity and Speculative Overtures 131
10 An Open Letter from Rattus Norvegicus to New York City 133
RADHIKA SUBRAMANIAM
11 “As Told to”: The Mediation of Refugee Voices in
Contemporary Short Fiction 143
MIRIAM WALLRAVEN
12 “I Am Also a We”: Pathic Communities and the Globalization of Affect in the Wachowskis’ Sense8 154
PAROMITA PATRANOBISH
13 Re-inscribing the World: Reflections on Sense-Making and Navigating the Networks of Global Capitalism 170
INDRANI DAS GUPTA
Index 187
Biography
Simi Malhotra is Professor and Head, Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. Her latest publications are the edited books Food Culture Studies in India: Consumption, Representation and Mediation and Inhabiting Cyberspace in India: Theory, Perspectives and Challenges, (both 2021, Springer), and the co-authored books Terrains of Consciousness: Multilogical Perspectives on Globalization, (2021, Würzburg University Press), and Ocean as Method: Thinking With The Maritime (2022, Routledge).
Shraddha A. Singh is Associate Professor at the Department of English, Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi, India. She works on literary theory and genre fiction with a special interest in Margaret Atwood’s oeuvre. She has worked on international projects, has several publications and has presented papers at national and international seminars and conferences. Her latest publication is titled Speculation and Detection: Explorations in Genre Fiction (2022, Worldview Publications). She is a published bilingual poet and has read her poetry at the Sahitya Akademi (Indian Academy of Letters).
Zahra Rizvi is a PhD scholar and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, and works in the fields of cultural studies, utopia/dystopia studies, digital humanities, and game studies. She is co-founder of the Indian chapter of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and is a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Fellow at Yale University. She was recently Ministry of Education-SPARC Fellow in Digital Humanities at Michigan State University, and Electronic Literature Organization Fellow 2022. She has delivered lectures at Michigan State University, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. Her work has been published in several online and print journals.
"This rich volume covered a wide range of philosophical, literary and ethical materials to place the work of the imagination its widest spatial contexts, ranging from the intimate to the planetary. The authors explore the actual, possible and probable terrains of the ethics of humanity in an epoch in which global challenges appear to be subsumed by the planetary crisis."
- Professor Arjun Appadurai
"This collection of essays is a valuable addition to the growing field of Anthropocene studies. Concerned with the globe, the earth, and our times, the essays included here dwell on planetary ethics in speculative, real, and imagined spaces. This book will speak to our sense of the present."
- Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty
