Hilldale Lecture 2024 – Karen Pinkus (Cornell)

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Elvehjem L140, 800 University Ave, Madison WI 53706
@ 3:00 pm CDT - 4:00 pm CDT
Website for Karen Pinkus

Speaker: Karen Pinkus, Professor Emerita of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature, Cornell University

Title: Literary Narrative Confronting a ‘Just and Orderly Transition’

Abstract: In 2023 the COP meeting in Dubai called for a “just, orderly and equitable” transition away from fossil fuels. It would be difficult for any reasonable person to take a position against the transition. But perhaps reason is not helpful here and now. I put literary narratives (primarily French and Italian, although in theory I am suggesting a broader method) in conversation with climate policy, in order to undo a complacent faith in “transition.” What are its temporal logics? How will we know when it is over? Can economic transformations or scientific paradigm shifts provide useful models? And ultimately, how does literary writing, with its potential ruptures or failures, stand in relation to our collective dream of a smooth sail into a fossil-free future?

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Free and open to the public

For more information please contact Joshua Armstrong or Ernesto Livorni

Sponsoring unit(s):

Department of French and Italian – Department of History – Center for Culture, History, and Environment – Center for the Humanities – Institute for Research in the Humanities – Department of Geoscience