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In the Name of Sharks
François Sarano; Translated by Stephen Muecke
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R390
Discovery Miles 3 900
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Twenty metres below water, the oceanographer François Sarano came
face to face with a five-and-a-half metre great white shark.
Seduced by the gentle elegance of this majestic creature, Sarano
experienced a profound sense of affinity with her as they swam side
by side, shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye, cutting a single figure
through the ocean depths. It was an experience which made him
realise the depth of our ignorance of the lives of sharks, leading
him to become a passionate advocate for their protection. Drawing
on the latest scientific research on the biology and ethology of
sharks and their exceptional characteristics, this book aims to
break through the barrier of prejudice and to pay homage to their
true nature. Representing a last vestige of wildness, their
populations are nevertheless under threat – like so many species,
they have been hunted and exploited by humans. Sarano argues for a
change of mindset in which we lose ourselves in the world of the
other, so that each living entity, human and non-human, can take
their rightful place in the broader global ecosystem.
In North-West Australia, between 2009 and 2013, a major
Indigenous-environmentalist alliance waged a successful campaign to
stop a huge industrial development, a $45 billion liquefied gas
plant proposed by Woodside and its partners. The Western Australian
government and key Indigenous institutions also pushed hard for
this, making the custodians of the Country, the Goolarabooloo, an
embattled minority. This experimental ethnography documents the
Goolarabooloo's knowledge of Country, their long history of
struggle for survival, and the alliances that formed to support
them. Written in a fictocritical style, it introduces a new
'multirealist' kind of analysis that focuses on institutions
(Indigenous or European), their spheres of influence, and how they
organised to stay alive as alliances shifted and changed.
As a genre that confounds the distinction between fiction and
non-fiction, fictocriticism continues to gain currency. It solves a
problem for researchers and writers who do not wish to be held to
that somewhat artificial division, and who consider their research
methods necessarily to include the stylistic experiments that show
their research and thought processes. Research, knowledge of the
world, that continues to be 'written up', 'after the fact' in the
usual academic genres, has a tendency to re-inscribe the status
quo. The world stays the way it is; change, surprise and experiment
elude the writer. Stephen Muecke, one of the originators of
fictocritical writing, presents a selection of his best essays in
this innovative genre. In doing so he offers a rare and important
theorization of the potential of speculative methods across
disciplines including Literary Studies, Philosophy, Anthropology,
Geography, and Science and Technology Studies.
As a genre that confounds the distinction between fiction and
non-fiction, fictocriticism continues to gain currency. It solves a
problem for researchers and writers who do not wish to be held to
that somewhat artificial division, and who consider their research
methods necessarily to include the stylistic experiments that show
their research and thought processes. Research, knowledge of the
world, that continues to be 'written up', 'after the fact' in the
usual academic genres, has a tendency to re-inscribe the status
quo. The world stays the way it is; change, surprise and experiment
elude the writer. Stephen Muecke, one of the originators of
fictocritical writing, presents a selection of his best essays in
this innovative genre. In doing so he offers a rare and important
theorization of the potential of speculative methods across
disciplines including Literary Studies, Philosophy, Anthropology,
Geography, and Science and Technology Studies.
How does the work of influential theorist Bruno Latour offer a
fresh angle on the practices and purposes of the humanities? In
recent years, defenses of the humanities have tended to argue along
predictable lines: the humanities foster empathy, the humanities
encourage critical thinking, the humanities offer a counterweight
to the cold calculations of the natural and social sciences. The
essays in Latour and the Humanities take a different approach.
Exploring the relevance of theorist Bruno Latour's work, they argue
for attachments and entanglements between the humanities and the
sciences while looking closely at the interests, institutions, and
intellectual projects that shape the humanities within and beyond
the university. The collection, which is written by a group of
highly distinguished scholars from around the world, is divided
into two sections. In the first part, authors engage in depth with
Latour's work while also rethinking the ties between the humanities
and the sciences. Essays argue for greater attention to the
nonhuman world, the urgency of climate change, and more nuanced
views of universities as institutions. The second half of the
volume contains essays that reflect on Latour's influence on the
practices of specific disciplines, including art, the digital
humanities, film studies, and political theory. Inspiring
conversation about the relevance of actor-network-theory for
research and teaching in the humanities, Latour and the Humanities
offers a substantial introduction to Latour's work while discussing
the humanities without falling back on the genres of either the
sermon or the jeremiad. This volume will be of interest to all
those searching for fresh perspectives on the value and importance
of humanistic disciplines and thought. Contributors: David J.
Alworth, Anders Blok, Claudia Breger, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Yves
Citton, Steven Connor, Gerard de Vries, Simon During, Rita Felski,
Francis Halsall, Graham Harman, Antoine Hennion, Casper Bruun
Jensen, Bruno Latour, Heather Love, Patrice Maniglier, Stephen
Muecke, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Nigel Thrift, Michael Witmore
|
In the Name of Sharks
François Sarano; Translated by Stephen Muecke
|
R1,197
Discovery Miles 11 970
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
Twenty metres below water, the oceanographer François Sarano came
face to face with a five-and-a-half metre great white shark.
Seduced by the gentle elegance of this majestic creature, Sarano
experienced a profound sense of affinity with her as they swam side
by side, shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye, cutting a single figure
through the ocean depths. It was an experience which made him
realise the depth of our ignorance of the lives of sharks, leading
him to become a passionate advocate for their protection. Drawing
on the latest scientific research on the biology and ethology of
sharks and their exceptional characteristics, this book aims to
break through the barrier of prejudice and to pay homage to their
true nature. Representing a last vestige of wildness, their
populations are nevertheless under threat – like so many species,
they have been hunted and exploited by humans. Sarano argues for a
change of mindset in which we lose ourselves in the world of the
other, so that each living entity, human and non-human, can take
their rightful place in the broader global ecosystem.
As they set off for Madagascar in 2003, photographer Max Pam and
writer Stephen Muecke adopted as their guiding principle the idea
of contingency--central to which is the conscious embrace of risk
and chance. In doing so, they established a new aesthetic in which
image and text are inextricably linked to the notion of
possibility. This stunning collection of photos and essays is the
result of their vision, collectively illustrating the beauty and
wisdom on offer in one of the world's poorest nations. A
contribution to the wave of new ethnography exemplified by Michael
Taussig and Kathleen Stewart, these encounters with events, images,
and experimental writing dramatize thoughts and feelings in the
ongoing construction of place.
An award-winning exploration of the presence of the dead in the
lives of the living A common remedy after suffering the loss of a
loved one is to progress through the “stages of grief,” with
“acceptance” as the final stage in the process. But is it
necessary to leave death behind, to stop dwelling on the dead, to
get over the pain? Vinciane Despret thinks not. In her fascinating,
elegantly translated book, this influential thinker argues that, in
practice, people in all cultures continue to enjoy a lively,
inventive, positive relationship with their dead. Through her
unique storytelling woven from ethnographic sources and her own
family history, Despret assembles accounts of those who have found
ways to live their daily lives with their dead. She rejects the
idea that one must either subscribe to “complete mourning” (in
a sense, to get rid of the dead) or else fall into fantasy and
superstition. She explores instead how the dead still play an
active, tangible role through those who are living, who might
assume their place in a family or in society; continue their labor
or art; or thrive from a shared inheritance or an organ donation.
This is supported by dreams and voices, novels, television and
popular culture, the work of clairvoyants, and the everyday stories
and activities of the living. For decades now, in the West, the
dead have been discreet and invisible. Today, especially as a
result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Despret suggests that perhaps we
will be willing to engage with the dead in ways that bring us
happiness despite our loss. Despret’s unique method of
inquiry makes her book both entertaining and instructive. Our
Grateful Dead offers a new, pragmatic approach to social and
cultural research and may indeed provide compassionate therapy for
those of us coping with death.
In North-West Australia, between 2009 and 2013, a major
Indigenous-environmentalist alliance waged a successful campaign to
stop a huge industrial development, a $45 billion liquefied gas
plant proposed by Woodside and its partners. The Western Australian
government and key Indigenous institutions also pushed hard for
this, making the custodians of the Country, the Goolarabooloo, an
embattled minority. This experimental ethnography documents the
Goolarabooloo's knowledge of Country, their long history of
struggle for survival, and the alliances that formed to support
them. Written in a fictocritical style, it introduces a new
'multirealist' kind of analysis that focuses on institutions
(Indigenous or European), their spheres of influence, and how they
organised to stay alive as alliances shifted and changed.
Here is a lively, vibrantly illustrated social and cultural history
of the Aboriginal Australians, from their origins to the present
day. The book explores the spiritual beliefs and Dreamings of the
Indigenous people, their complex social structures and relationship
with the land, and their struggle to survive the trials of
colonization and forced assimilation. It also looks in depth at
their massive cultural renaissance over the past four decades, with
comprehensive coverage of the way in which Aboriginal art and
literature have become flagships for Australian culture.
From the Sivens forest in France to the Hambach forest in Germany,
from the Broadback forest in Canada to the rainforests of Borneo,
something has shifted in these wild spaces over the last decade or
two. People have begun to inhabit the forests, oppose the loggers
and use their bodies as shields, motivated by the determination to
resist the lethal ecosystem of commercial exploitation. Forests
have become a battleground in the struggle between groups with
fundamentally divergent aims and objectives. Forests are
made up of insurgents. Jean-Baptiste Vidalou went to see
some of these forests and meet those who are defending them: he
discovered a completely different way of understanding the world,
sharply opposed to the mentality of planners who see forests as
just one more territory to be managed. Here he recounts this
encounter, relays what these forest peoples and struggles convey,
not to offer any recipes or ready-made solutions to the crises of
our times but to be the forest, like a force that grows, stem
by stem, leaf by leaf, slowly becoming ungovernable.
This volume invokes the "postcolonial contemporary" in order to
recognize and reflect upon the postcolonial character of the
contemporary conjuncture, as well as to inquire into whether
postcolonial criticism can adequately grasp it. Neither simply for
nor against postcolonialism, the book seeks to cut across this
false alternative and to think with postcolonial theory about
political contemporaneity. Many of the most influential frameworks
of postcolonial theory were developed from the 1970s to 1990s,
during what we may now recognize as the twilight of the postwar
period. If forms of capitalist imperialism are entering into new
configurations of neoliberal privatization, wars-without-end,
xenophobic nationalism, and unsustainable extraction, what aspects
of postcolonial inquiry must be reworked or revised in order to
grasp our political present? In twelve essays that draw from a
number of disciplines-history, anthropology, literature, geography,
indigenous studies- and regional locations (the Black Atlantic,
South Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Australia, Argentina) The
Postcolonial Contemporary seeks to move beyond the habitual
oppositions that have often characterized the field: universal vs.
particular; Marxism vs. postcolonialism; politics vs. culture. The
essays reckon with new and persisting postcolonial predicaments,
doing so under four interrelated analytics: postcolonial
temporality; deprovincializing the global south; beyond Marxism
versus postcolonial studies; and postcolonial spatiality and new
political imaginaries. From the book's powerful and substantial
Introduction through its dozen compelling chapters, The
Postcolonial Contemporary will be a landmark volume for reassessing
a crucial critical framework for today's world. Contributors: Sadia
Abbas, Anthony C. Alessandrini, Sharad Chari, Carlos A. Forment,
Vinay Gidwani, Peter Hitchcock, Laurie Lambert, Stephen Muecke,
Anupama Rao, Adam Spanos, Jini Kim Watson, Gary Wilder
From the Sivens forest in France to the Hambach forest in Germany,
from the Broadback forest in Canada to the rainforests of Borneo,
something has shifted in these wild spaces over the last decade or
two. People have begun to inhabit the forests, oppose the loggers
and use their bodies as shields, motivated by the determination to
resist the lethal ecosystem of commercial exploitation. Forests
have become a battleground in the struggle between groups with
fundamentally divergent aims and objectives. Forests are
made up of insurgents. Jean-Baptiste Vidalou went to see
some of these forests and meet those who are defending them: he
discovered a completely different way of understanding the world,
sharply opposed to the mentality of planners who see forests as
just one more territory to be managed. Here he recounts this
encounter, relays what these forest peoples and struggles convey,
not to offer any recipes or ready-made solutions to the crises of
our times but to be the forest, like a force that grows, stem
by stem, leaf by leaf, slowly becoming ungovernable.
This volume invokes the "postcolonial contemporary" in order to
recognize and reflect upon the postcolonial character of the
contemporary conjuncture, as well as to inquire into whether
postcolonial criticism can adequately grasp it. Neither simply for
nor against postcolonialism, the book seeks to cut across this
false alternative and to think with postcolonial theory about
political contemporaneity. Many of the most influential frameworks
of postcolonial theory were developed from the 1970s to 1990s,
during what we may now recognize as the twilight of the postwar
period. If forms of capitalist imperialism are entering into new
configurations of neoliberal privatization, wars-without-end,
xenophobic nationalism, and unsustainable extraction, what aspects
of postcolonial inquiry must be reworked or revised in order to
grasp our political present? In twelve essays that draw from a
number of disciplines-history, anthropology, literature, geography,
indigenous studies- and regional locations (the Black Atlantic,
South Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Australia, Argentina) The
Postcolonial Contemporary seeks to move beyond the habitual
oppositions that have often characterized the field: universal vs.
particular; Marxism vs. postcolonialism; politics vs. culture. The
essays reckon with new and persisting postcolonial predicaments,
doing so under four interrelated analytics: postcolonial
temporality; deprovincializing the global south; beyond Marxism
versus postcolonial studies; and postcolonial spatiality and new
political imaginaries. From the book's powerful and substantial
Introduction through its dozen compelling chapters, The
Postcolonial Contemporary will be a landmark volume for reassessing
a crucial critical framework for today's world. Contributors: Sadia
Abbas, Anthony C. Alessandrini, Sharad Chari, Carlos A. Forment,
Vinay Gidwani, Peter Hitchcock, Laurie Lambert, Stephen Muecke,
Anupama Rao, Adam Spanos, Jini Kim Watson, Gary Wilder
An award-winning exploration of the presence of the dead in the
lives of the living A common remedy after suffering the loss of a
loved one is to progress through the "stages of grief," with
"acceptance" as the final stage in the process. But is it necessary
to leave death behind, to stop dwelling on the dead, to get over
the pain? Vinciane Despret thinks not. In her fascinating,
elegantly translated book, this influential thinker argues that, in
practice, people in all cultures continue to enjoy a lively,
inventive, positive relationship with their dead. Through her
unique storytelling woven from ethnographic sources and her own
family history, Despret assembles accounts of those who have found
ways to live their daily lives with their dead. She rejects the
idea that one must either subscribe to "complete mourning" (in a
sense, to get rid of the dead) or else fall into fantasy and
superstition. She explores instead how the dead still play an
active, tangible role through those who are living, who might
assume their place in a family or in society; continue their labor
or art; or thrive from a shared inheritance or an organ donation.
This is supported by dreams and voices, novels, television and
popular culture, the work of clairvoyants, and the everyday stories
and activities of the living. For decades now, in the West, the
dead have been discreet and invisible. Today, especially as a
result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Despret suggests that perhaps we
will be willing to engage with the dead in ways that bring us
happiness despite our loss. Despret's unique method of inquiry
makes her book both entertaining and instructive. Our Grateful Dead
offers a new, pragmatic approach to social and cultural research
and may indeed provide compassionate therapy for those of us coping
with death.
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