Literary Narrative Confronting a "Just and Orderly Transition"

UW Department of French & Italian (and partners) Hilldale Lecture by Cornell University professor Karen Pinkus, Room L140.

media release:

Lecture 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 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?

Made possible with Funding provided by the Hilldale Lecture Fund and the Department of French & Italian with additional support from the Department of History, Center for Culture, History, and Environment, Center for the Humanities, Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Department of Geoscience.