Abstract
In Part 1 of ‘Encountering Berlant’, we encounter the promise and provocation of Lauren Berlant's work. In 1000-word contributions, geographers and others stay with what Berlant's thought offers contemporary human geography. They amplify an encounter with their work, demonstrating how a concept, idea, or style disrupts something, opens up a new possibility, or simply invites thinking otherwise. The encounters range across the incredible body of work Berlant left us with, from the ‘national sentimentality’ trilogy through to recent work on negativity. Varying in form and tone, the encounters exemplify and enact the inexhaustible plenitude of Berlant's thought: fantasy, the case, love, impasse, feel tanks, slow death, ellipses, gesture, attrition, intimate public, ambivalence, style. Part 2 of ‘Encountering Berlant’ focuses on Berlant's most influential concept: ‘cruel optimism’. Across these heterogeneous encounters, Berlant's enduring concern with the tensions and possibilities of relationality and how to enact better forms of common life shine through. These enduring concerns and Berlant's commitment to the incoherence and overdetermination of phenomena are summarised in the Introduction, which also explores how Berlant's work has been engaged with in geography. The result is a repository of what an encounter with Berlant's thought makes possible.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 117-142 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Geographical Journal |
| Volume | 189 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 25 Dec 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 6 Feb 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Ben Anderson: Thanks to Helen F. Wilson and Anna Secor for their comments on drafts of this introduction, and Helen, Anna, Beckie Coleman, Angharad Closs-Stephens, and Ruth Raynor for conversations about Berlant's work. Chloe Turner: Thank you to Rebecca Coleman and Dawn Lyons for their generous and careful edits on this piece. Thank you also to Ben for pulling together such an interesting collection. Thomas Jellis: Thanks to Derek McCormack for sharing the initial reading list on case studies, and to Joe Gerlach and Ben Anderson for comments on an earlier version. Kathryn Coleman, Sarah Healy, Kim Snepvangers, Rita L. Irwin, Mitsy Kwang Dae Chung, Marthy Watson, Adam Staples, and Rob Hayden Jr: Our collaboration took place on stolen lands of First Nations people across the globe. We offer our respect to all past and present First Nations elders and acknowledge the important role of Country in enabling collaborations between known and unknown artist-teachers who came together through the International Society of Education through Art (InSEA) to heal through art, research, and teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Justin Tse: I would like to thank Ben Anderson for his editorial comments, as well as Mok Zining, Xenia Chan, and Renee Tan for reading this piece at its earliest stages. Jana Bacevic: Thank you to Ben Anderson and Jen Bagelman for convening and all participants of the North-east Affect Network, as well as Ben Anderson for comments on the piece. Salman Khan: Thank you to Ben Anderson for his editorial comments and engagement with this piece. Thanks also to Andreas Stoiber, Younis Azeem, and Bridget Shaffrey for reading it at various stages. David K. Seitz: Special thanks to Deb Cowen.
Publisher Copyright:
The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2022 The Authors. The Geographical Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
Research Groups and Themes
- Historical and Cultural Geographies Research Group
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