Further Reading
Chaudhuri, Amit, ed.
Literary Activism. Perspectives
Oxford University Press, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-1994-7498-1
Literary Activism revisits and interrogates, and looks to renew, the force of the literary. It’s a movement that emerges from a radically altered landscape for both publishing and academia, where what Amit Chaudhuri calls ‘market activism’ has effected changes – on language, on the measuring of value, on the concept of influence – in ways we struggle to recognise. The essays in this volume offer the beginnings of an analysis of the literary world at a certain moment of globalisation, while also questioning whether a literary world exists and, if it does, where its boundaries lie. Taken together, these essays initiate a series of conversations about who reads what and why, about the practice of writing and criticism at this particular contemporary moment, and about the activities and institutions that shape an understanding of what literature is and what it can do.
Deepwell, Katy, ed.
Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms
Valiz, 2020
ISBN: 978-9-4920-9572-5
‘Feminisms’ (as a plural) is widely used today to draw attention to inequalities and to critique the status quo in limiting women’s roles/ positions/ lives/ potential. Art can offer a vision of future worlds, manifesting a desire for projecting change, playing with existing realities and conventions. Feminist Art Artivism and Activism, two sides of the same coin, arise where art approaches, develops or transforms into activism and vice versa, where activisms become artivisms. In both, art emerges in differing forms of political intervention, at both an individual, shared or collective level, apparent in actions, events, identifications and practices.
This volume wants to reveal the diversity of these practices and realities. Representing a range of critical insights, perspectives and practices from artists, activists, curators, academics and writers, it explores and reflects on the enormous variety of feminist interventions in the field of contemporary art, social processes, the public sphere and politics. In doing so, Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms touches upon broader questions of cultural difference, history, class, economic position, ecology, politics, sexual orientation, and the ways in which these intersect.
Dobson, Kit, and Áine McGlynn, eds.
Transnationalism, Activism, Art
University of Toronto Press, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4426-4319-2
Banksy is known worldwide for his politically subversive works of art, but he is far from the only artist whose creations are infused with internationally relevant, activist themes. How else can the arts help activate citizen participation in social justice movements? Moreover, what is the role of culture in a globalizing world?
Transnationalism, Activism, Art goes beyond Banksy by investigating how the three complementary political, social, and cultural phenomena listed in the title interact in the twenty-first century. Renowned and emerging critics use current theory on cultural production and politics to illuminate case studies of various media, including film, literature, visual art, and performance, in their multiple manifestations, from electronic dance music to Wikileaks to bestselling poetry collections. By addressing how these artistic media are used to enact citizen participation in social justice movements, the volume makes important connections between such participation and scholarly study of globalization and transnationalism.
Gomez, Leila, ed.
Indigenous Narratives of Territory and Creation: Hemispheric Perspectives
Special Issue of English Language Notes
Duke University Press, 2020
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-4780-0871-2
Indigenous activism in the Americas has long focused on the symbolic reclamation of land. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, contributors to this issue explore narratives of territory and origin that provide a foundation for this political practice. The contributors study Indigenous-language stories from displaced communities, analyzing the meaning and power of these narratives in the context of diaspora and the struggle for land. Essays address topics including territorial struggle and environmentalism, Indigenous resistance to neoliberal policies of land dispossession, and alliances between academic and Indigenous knowledges and activisms. This issue brings together fruitful comparisons of theoretical frameworks and case studies in Indigenous studies across North and South America. Its contributors advance the process of returning to Indigenous knowledge, offering essential alternatives to Western epistemologies.
Contributors. Amber Meadow Adams, Alexandre Belmonte, Enrique Manuel Bernales Albites, Andrew Cowell, Ella Deloria, Leila Gómez, Sarah Hernandez, Penelope Kelsey, José Antonio Mazzotti, Javier Muñoz-Díaz, Craig Perez, Cheryl Savageau, Ángel Tuninetti, Christopher T. Vecsey.
Lijster, Thijs, ed.
The Future of the New. Artistic Innovation in Times of Social Acceleration
Valiz with IKK—Institute for Art and Critique (IKK), 2018
ISBN: 978-9-4920-9558-9
In The Future of the New: Artistic Innovation in Times of Social Acceleration artists, theorists, and professionals working the art field reflect on the role of the arts in a world that is speeding up and changing through joint forces of globalization, digitization, commodification, and financialization. Can artistic innovation still function as a source of critique? How do artists, theorists, and art organizations deal with the changing role of and discourse on innovation? Should we look for alternative ways to innovate, or should we change our discourse and look for other (new!) ways to talk about the new? Combining timely analyses of contemporary art and inspiring visions for the future, The Future of the New attempts to set the agenda for the debate on the function, value and future of artistic innovation.
Moosbrugger, Megan
Digital Citizenship in Twenty-First-Century Young Adult Literature. Imaginary Activism
Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-137-58173-0
This book is a study of the evolving relationships between literature, cyberspace, and young adults in the twenty-first century. Megan L. Musgrave explores the ways that young adult fiction is becoming a platform for a public conversation about the great benefits and terrible risks of our increasing dependence upon technology in public and private life. Drawing from theories of digital citizenship and posthuman theory, Digital Citizenship in Twenty-First-Century Young Adult Literature considers how the imaginary forms of activism depicted in literature can prompt young people to shape their identities and choices as citizens in a digital culture.
Romero, Channette
Activism and the American Novel. Religion and Resistance in Fiction by Women of Color
University of Virginia Press, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8139-3329-0
Since the 1980s, many activists and writers have turned from identity politics toward ethnic religious traditions to rediscover and reinvigorate their historic role in resistance to colonialism and oppression. In her examination of contemporary fiction by women of color—including Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, Toni Cade Bambara, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Marmon Silko—Channette Romero considers the way these novels newly engage with Vodun, Santería, Candomblé, and American Indian traditions. Critical of a widespread disengagement from civic participation and of the contemporary novel’s disconnection from politics, this fiction attempts to transform the novel and the practice of reading into a means of political engagement and an inspiration for social change.
Rush, Peter, and Olivera Simić, eds.
The Arts of Transitional Justice. Culture, Activism, and Memory after Atrocity
Springer, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4614-8385-4
The Arts of Transitional Justice examines the relationship between transitional justice and the practices of art associated with it. Art, which includes theater, literature, photography, and film, has been integral to the understanding of the issues faced in situations of transitional justice as well as other issues arising out of conflict and mass atrocity. The chapters in this volume take up this understanding and its demands of transitional justice in situations in several countries: Afghanistan, Serbia, Srebenica, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Cambodia, as well as the experiences of resulting diasporic communities. In doing so, it brings to bear the insights from scholars, civil society groups, and art practitioners, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations.
Steinbock, Eliza, Bram Ieven and Marijke de Valck, eds.
Art and Activism in the Age of Systemic Crisis. Aesthetic Resilience
Routledge, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-4292-6918-9
This book examines how renewed forms of artistic activism were developed in the wake of the neoliberal repression since the 1980s. The volume shows the diverse ways in which artists have sought to confront systemic crises around the globe, searching for new and enduring forms of building communities and reimagining the political horizon. The authors engage in a dialogue with these artistic efforts and their histories – in particular the earlier artistic activism that was developed during the civil rights era in the 1960s and 70s – providing valuable historical insight and new conceptual reflection on the future of aesthetic resilience. This book will be of interest to scholars in contemporary art, history of art, film and literary studies, protest movements, and social movements.
Tymoczko, Maria, ed.
Translation, Resistance, Activism
University of Massachusetts Press, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-5584-9833-4
More than merely linguistic transposition, translation is a vector of power, resistance, rebellion, and even revolution. Exploring these facets of the ideology of translation, the contributors to this volume focus on the agency of translators and their activism. Spanning two centuries and reaching across the globe, the essays examine the varied activist strategies of key translators and translation movements. From silence to radical manipulation of texts, translation strategies are instrumental in significant historical interventions and cultural change. Translation plays a pivotal role in ideological dialogue and struggle, including resistance to oppression and cultural straitjackets of all types, from sexual puritanism to military dictatorships. Situated in their own space, time, history, and political contexts, translators promote ideological agendas by creating new cultural narratives, pragmatically adjusting tactics so as to maximize the social and political impact. The essays in this volume explore ways to read translations as records of cultural contestation and ideological struggle; as means of fighting censorship, physical coercion, cultural repression, and political dominance; and as texts that foster a wide variety of goals from cultural nationalism to armed confrontation. Translations are set in relief as central cultural documents rather than derivative, peripheral, or marginalized productions. They are seen as forms of ethical, political, and ideological activity rather than as mere communicative transactions or creative literary exercises. The contributors demonstrate that engaged and activist translations are performative acts within broader political and ideological contexts. The essays detail the initiative, resourcefulness, and courage of individual translators, whose willingness to put themselves on the line for social change can sometimes move the world. In addition to Maria Tymoczko, contributors include Pua‘ala‘okalani D. Aiu, Brian James Baer, Mona Baker, Paul F. Bandia, Georges L. Bastin, Nitsa Ben-Ari, Ángela Campo, Antonia Carcelen-Estrada, Álvaro Echeverri, Denise Merkle, John Milton, and Else R.P. Vieira.