Leonardo: The Poetry of the Possible
The Modern muse, as shown convincingly by Hugh Kenner in a seminal book, is a mechanical one. Hence, the wide-spread suspicion in high-modernist circles of spontaneity, often denounced as a myth, an illusion, a dangerous belief in old-fashioned, romantic notions of the inspired genius. In addition, this mechanical muse is also characterized as an inward turn, a preference given to the more authentic world of the inner self rather than to the harsh realities of the world outside.
Recent and contemporary visions of Modernity have started interrogating, if not rejecting these assumptions, and Joel Nickel's timely book is a clear yet very radical example of this reversal. Nickel does not only stress the importance of spontaneity in Modernist texts and authors, he also, and perhaps more surprisingly, underlines the necessary political interpretation of spontaneity which has no longer only to do with the foregrounding of the writer's individuality.
Art and Posthumanism: Cary Wolfe in conversation with Art after Nature series editors Giovanni Aloi and Caroline Picard.
Life in Plastic: Petrochemical fantasies and synthetic sensibilities, with Caren Irr, Lisa Swanstrom, Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, and Daniel Worden.
Live: A book launch for We Are Meant to Rise at Next Chapter Booksellers features Carolyn Holbrook, David Mura, Douglas Kearney, Melissa Olson, Said Shaiye, and Kao Kalia Yang.
