Contemporary Revolutions: Turning Back to the Future in 21st-Century Literature and Art

Description

Returning to revolution's original meaning of 'cycle', Contemporary Revolutions explores how 21st-century writers, artists, and performers re-engage the arts of the past to reimagine a present and future encompassing revolutionary commitments to justice and freedom. Dealing with histories of colonialism, slavery, genocide, civil war, and gender and class inequities, essays examine literature and arts of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, and the United States. The broad range of contemporary writers and artists considered include fabric artist Ellen Bell; poets Selena Tusitala Marsh and Antje Krog; Syrian artists of the civil war and Sana Yazigi's creative memory web site about the war; street artist Bahia Shehab; theatre installation artist William Kentridge; and the recycles of Virginia Woolf by multi-media artist Kabe Wilson, novelist W. G. Sebald, and the contemporary trans movement. Title Page Copyright page Contents List of Figures Notes on Contributors Part 1 Beginnings Introduction: The Past in the Present: Temporalities of the Contemporary The Temporality of the Contemporary Beginnings Recycles: Aesthetics of Unsewing and Blacking Out Revolutions: Arts of Resistance Restages: Palimpsests of the Past Rereads: Then, Now Why Woolf? Endings Notes Works Cited Chapter 1 Recycling Revolution: Re-mixing A Room of One’s Own and Black Power in Kabe Wilson’s Performance, Installation, and Narrative Art Recycling, Re-mix, Revolution Recycling A Room of One’s Own Re-Mixing Feminism, Queering Mary Carmichael Revolution: Sampling Black Power Re-ordering A Room of One’s Own All’s Well That Ends Well: A Conclusion Notes Works Cited Part 2 Recycles: Aesthetics of Unsewing and Blacking Out Chapter 2 Stitch Works: Ellen Bell’s Unpicking Aesthetics and Victorian Women’s Creative Labor Bell’s Unpicking Aesthetics and Victorian Stitchers Vibrant Assemblages Unpicking Literary Text Assemblages of Charlotte Brontë  Performing Stitches: Oubliette Re-stitching: A Wrapping Up Notes Works Cited Chapter 3 Making It Niu: Blacking Out Albert Wendt’s Pouliuli the Tusitala Way The Tusitala Way Tusi/Tala/Ala and I Making Black Out Poetry Niu Blacking Out Pouliuli Niu Mythologies Making It Niu Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Part 3 Revolutions: Arts of Resistance Chapter 4 Curating the Syrian Revolution Online Revolution Creative Resistance Curating Resistance Revolutionary Habitus The Human Slaughterhouse Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 5 A Thousand Times No!: Spray Painting as Resistance and the Visual History of the Lam-Alif A Thousand Times NO! Revolution Relapse Off Streets of Cairo—On Streets of the World Conclusion Notes Works Cited Part 4 Restages: Palimpsests of the Past Chapter 6 The Folds of History in William Kentridge’s Black Box Theatre: Sampling German Nazism and Colonialism Black Box as a Critical Multidirectional Memory Discourse Cross-Referencing the Colonial Archive Performing the Colonial Archive The Rhinoceros as the Black Box of Postcolonial Europe The Folds of History Notes Works Cited Chapter 7 The Revolutions of Antjie Krog’s Lady Anne: A Chronicle in Verse The Lady and the Bard: On Texts, Times, and Transgressions Revolutionary Transparencies: On Having and Being Unexpected Forms: On Knowing, Waiting, and Learning to Listen Coda on a Marimba: On Failure and Freedom Notes Works Cited Part 5 Rereads: Then, Now Chapter 8 Repair Work, Despair Work: W. G. Sebald’s Contending Modernisms That Most Abstract of Humanity’s Homes As a Reader of Virginia Woolf Always Returning Notes Works Cited Chapter 9 On Rereading Woolf’s Orlando as Transgender Text Reading Transgender Histories Histories of Reading Orlando Rereading Orlando: Narrative Form as Transgender Text Two Popular Orlandos: Orlando without Narration Conclusion: (Back) Toward Transgender Rereading Notes Works Cited Index