Invoking Hope: Theory and Utopia in Dark Times
(Hardback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
Invoking Hope: Theory and Utopia in Dark Times
By (Author) Phillip E. Wegner
University of Minnesota Press
University of Minnesota Press
21st July 2020
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Political science and theory
190
Physical Properties
Hardback
264
Width 140mm, Height 216mm, Spine 38mm
Description
An appeal for the importance of theory, utopia, and close consideration of our contemporary dark times What does any particular theory allow us to do What is the value of doing so And who benefits In Invoking Hope, Phillip E. Wegner argues for the undiminished importance of the practices of theory, utopia, and a deep and critical reading of
Reviews
"This is a book that banishes intellectual lethargy forever, so dazzling are the close readings that flesh out its world-scale philosophy and so forceful is its polemica polemic on behalf of knowledge itself as much as theory, commitment, and a responsibly grounded, even necessary, account of hope."Bruce Robbins, author of The Beneficiary
"With originality and humor, Phillip E. Wegner extends Fredric Jamesons tradition of dialectically reappropriating formalisms, showing how even the most seemingly static structures can be deployed to think diachronically and reinvigorate our abilities to historicize. This fearless book is exactly what we need now."Sianne Ngai, University of Chicago
"Invoking Hope is a major intervention by our leading theorist of utopiaa manifesto for the crisis of the present and the possibility of a better future. Drawing on a mix of Western Marxism and Badiou, Phillip E. Wegner argues for the necessity of a positive hermeneutics and the imagination of possible futures. In the Pandoras box of the present, Wegner finds the hope that emerges last but promises everything."Christopher Breu, Illinois State University
"An uplifting (and very welcome) message that should appeal to everyone."Science Fiction Studies
Author Bio
Phillip E. Wegner is MarstonMilbauer Eminent Scholar in English at the University of Florida. He is author of Life between Two Deaths, 19892001: U.S. Culture in the Long Nineties; Periodizing Jameson: Dialectics, the University, and the Desire for Narrative; and Shockwaves of Possibility: Essays on Science Fiction, Globalization, and Utopia.
