Against Life

by Alastair Hunt (Editor), Stephanie Youngblood (Editor), Lee Edelman (Afterword)

The contributors to Against Life think critically about the turn to life in theory and culture and especially about its redemptive tendencies. Editors Alastair Hunt and Stephanie Youngblood shape their collection to provocatively challenge an assumption rife in the humanities, mainly that the idea of redeeming life might hinder important ethical conversations. They and their contributors question whether it is intelligent—or even necessary— to orient our collective ethico-political projects from figures of life, and to posit forms of equality and freedom that might emerge if we did not organize being-together under the sign of life. Taken together the essays in Against Life mark an important turn in the ethico-political work of the humanities.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2016

About the author

Alastair Hunt is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Portland State University. His current book project is called Rights of Romanticism.

Reviews

[Severin M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any essay compilation is bound to be a mixed bag and certainly some of those in here are mutually exclusive in conclusion and will likely result in a reader leaning one way or another (particularly with regards to the category of "vulnerability" which faces both humanist appreciation and a post-humanist firing squad. As for me, I fear I end up posted with the latter side). Ultimately, the essays on the environment, on animal death, and "Invidious Life" are going to stick with me for a while.