Nonmodern Practices assembles an outstanding body of distinguished international scholars to consolidate the multifaceted work of Bruno Latour as a provocation to comparative literary studies. William Paulson's foreword and Rita Felski's afterword join co-editor Elisabeth Arnould-Bloomfield's lucid introduction to provide a short course in Latour's master trope of the nonmodern. His actor-network theory comes forward as opening a field of empirical and interpretive possibilities ready to inform a renovated literary academy following Latour's lead beyond the (im)postures of ideological critique. A suite of spare and spirited essays-with standout contributions by Vinciane Despret and Graham Harman-model the practice of nonmodernity by stepping over the purified national, periodic, and disciplinary boundaries of standard literary discussion. * Bruce Clarke, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Literature and Science and Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Texas Tech University, USA *
To a man holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a modern scholar, everything looks like an occasion to prove one's mastery by devising neat distinctions between science and illusion, progress and tradition, emancipation and servitude. We may never have been (fully) modern, but neither can we simply trash modernity as a bad idea. Our most important task may be to complement modernization-and to contain its dramatic excesses, leading to the sixth great extinction and climate change-by reclaiming nonmodern practices, which trade self-righteous hammers for careful attention. Literary studies are best positioned to do so, as this volume brilliantly demonstrates. What has been held against them (not being scientific enough) may be their strongest asset: in fact, literary studies have always been nonmodern. They mobilize the power of illusions in their solicitude towards fiction, they are intrinsically rooted in cultural traditions, and they often uncover the hidden servitudes of emancipatory claims. From Montaigne to Donald Trump through Kafka, via orientalism and animal territories, this volume joyfully illustrates the platform of transdisciplinarity provided by Latour-inspired literary studies. * Yves Citton, Professor in Literature and Media, Universite Paris 8, France, and co-editor of the journal Multitudes *