Slavery and the Trumpocene: It's Not the End of the World

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Claire Colebrook

There is something more catastrophic than the end of the world, especially when ‘world’ is understood as the horizon of meaning and expectation that has composed the West. If the Anthropocene is the geological period marking the point at which the earth as a living system has been altered by ‘anthropos,’ the Trumpocene marks the twenty-first-century recognition that the destruction of the planet has occurred by way of racial violence, slavery and annihilation. Rather than saving the world, recognizing the Trumpocene demands that we think about destroying the barbarism that has marked the earth.

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben De Bruyn

This paper examines how contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction reflect on anticipated cases of climate dislocation. Building on existing research about migrant agency, climate fiction, and human rights, it traces the contours of climate migration discourse before analyzing how three twenty-first-century novels enable us to reimagine the “great displacement” beyond simplistic militarized and humanitarian frames. Zooming in on stories by Mohsin Hamid, John Lanchester, and Margaret Drabble that envision hypothetical calamities while responding to present-day refugee “crises”, this paper explains how these texts interrogate apocalyptic narratives by demilitarizing borderscapes, exploring survivalist mindsets, and interrogating shallow appeals to empathy.


1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Hussin Mutalib

The Image and Impact of Islamic Resurgence The global phenomenon of Islamic resurgence (or Islamic revival­ism). which has caught the attention of Muslims and non-Muslims, has impacted the world community in many different ways. Much of this reassertiveness of the Islamic ethos has been discussed and published.' Feeling somewhat threatened by the "rise of Islam" as it were, the gen­eral non-Muslim and western attitude has been one of suspicion and awe: such Muslim "fundamentalist" behavior and trends, it was argued, had to be checked or even thwarted, or else Muslims would make life difficult for others. There were some exceptions to such a negative atti­tude and response. but by and large such a wariness had permeated the thinking of many non-Muslims, including western powers and the non­Muslim world generally. This mindset lingers until today as the world approaches the arrival of the twenty-first century-manifest, for instance. in the "clash of civi­lization" thesis postulated by the well-known Harvard professor, Samuel Hun-tington recently. Even more recent was the declaration by both the French Defense Minister and the NATO secretary-general that the world today is facing a new threat after the fall of communism, that of Islamic fundamentalism, and their call for the West to bolster support only to what he called moderate Muslim regimes.2 The behavior and actions of fanatics and extremists, both Muslim and non-Muslim, the world over, have exacerbated the problem and, consequently, worsened the poor image that people have of Muslims and Islam ...


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-263
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Mayo

This paper analyzes Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's recent film, Cabin in the Woods (2012), using Thomas J. Catlaw's Fabricating the People (2007), to illustrate the precarious position of youth at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author argues that just as the film requires young people to sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity, recent political events ask young people to sacrifice their well-being for the sake of neo-liberalism. Throughout the film, youth refuse the sacrificial logic of the Director, choosing instead a “logic of subtraction.” While the film seemingly ends with the nihilistic end of the world, when viewed through the lens of Fabricating the People it may also offer a hopeful suggestion for how young people can resist and change oppressive systems of governance.


Author(s):  
Berthold Schoene

This chapter looks at how the contemporary British and Irish novel is becoming part of a new globalized world literature, which imagines the world as it manifests itself both within (‘glocally’) and outside nationalist demarcations. At its weakest, often against its own best intentions, this new cosmopolitan writing cannot but simply reinscribe the old imperial power relations. Or, it provides an essential component of the West’s ideological superstructure for globalization’s neoliberal business of rampant upward wealth accumulation. At its best, however, this newly emergent genre promotes a cosmopolitan ethics of justice, resistance. It also promotes dissent while working hard to expose and deconstruct the extant hegemonies and engaging in a radical imaginative recasting of global relations.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document