In the fourth episode of Human Conditions, the last of the series with Judith Butler, we fittingly turn to The Human Condition (1956). Hannah Arendt defines action as the highest form of human activity: distinct from work and labour, action includes collaborative expression, collective decision-making and, crucially, initiating change. Focusing on the chapte ... Show More
Yesterday
The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
Tom McCarthy, writing in the LRB, described James Joyce's Ulysses as a ‘heavy book, a book full of weight, a fallen book’; a ‘properly obscene book’; ‘a book in which the central stake is the coming into being of the book itself’; a book for which ‘people should desist, once and ... Show More
52m 4s
Oct 21
Nature in Crisis: ‘Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism’ by Thea Riofrancos
Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the transition away from fossil fuels. But lithium, like the copper, cobalt and rare earths that renewable technologies also require, has to be mined. ‘Everywhere that mines are dug up to provide raw materials for the energy transition,’ ... Show More
23m 52s
Oct 14
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Shyness and Dignity’ by Dag Solstad
What happens when the techniques of realist literature become absorbed into our understanding of real life? And what would it mean to try to depict that experience in fiction? In Dag Solstad’s Shyness and Dignity (1994), a middle-aged teacher, Elias Rukla, is teaching Ibsen’s The ... Show More
24m 18s
Dec 2021
The Surface is Rippled: Interview with Judith Butler (part II)
In this episode, we excitingly continue our conversation with the renowned Judith Butler. She takes us through her objection to the so-called opposition between surface reading and the hermeneutics of suspicion, describes what she calls “the relational move,” and animates for us ... Show More
27m 16s
Nov 2023
Next Year on Close Readings: Human Conditions
In the second of three introductions to our full Close Readings programme for 2024, Adam Shatz presents his series, Human Conditions, in which he’ll be talking separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary ... Show More
26m 33s
Nov 2024
The Forgetful Said (L'Étourdit), Episode 7
Here’s the final episode, titled “Recollection,” in our podcast series on Lacan’s infamous 1972 essay “L’Étourdit.” You can also access the video recording of this lecture at our YouTube channel. And if you’re eager for more, join our current series on Seminar XX! This is a publi ... Show More
1h 3m