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Oceanic Deterritorialization

July 19, 2011 by Steve Mentz 1 Comment

While in the belly of the biggest bird in the world over the Atlantic on Sunday night, I read Ursula Heise’s quite wonderful book Sense of Place, Sense of Planet, and was very struck by what she had to say about “deterritorialization,” a term she gets from recent theorists of the global (Giddens, Beck, Appadurai, theorists of the cognate term “cosmopolitanism” inc Appiah, Nussbaum, etc).  She also derives some of her thinking from DeLilo, esp Underworld, though she writes, quite interestingly, about White Noise.

No time to think through these things before breakfast in Prague, but I found on the Times website today this op-ed about a more literal form of deterritorialization, which is about to affect island nations in the Pacific as sea levels rise.  It’s an interesting reminder that some of the hybrid or decentered values that are dear to intellectuals can also be uncomfortable, impractical, and also painfully real.

 

Filed Under: Blue Humanities, Books

Comments

  1. Jeffrey Cohen says

    July 20, 2011 at 10:05 am

    I’ll be on the A380 between LA and Melbourne on Sunday. I am most looking forward to the “always open” snack bar.

    I’ve also just finished Heise’s book, which I loved. You’ll see its impress on my contribution to Prismatic Ecologies when I circulate the abstracts later today.

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About Steve

Steve Mentz
Professor of English
St. John’s University
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Shakespearean. Ecocritic. Swimmer. New book Ocean #objectsobjects Professor at St. John's in NYC. #bluehumanities #pluralizetheanthropocene

Steve Mentz
stevermentzSteve Mentz@stevermentz·
4 May

Today's the day! I'm doing something a bit different in this lecture, shaping my thoughts around the work and intellectual legacy of John Gillis. It'll be recorded, for people who can't be in the room or on the Zoom today in Bern!

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Very excited to be in Bern, and I’m looking forward to the lecture and workshop!

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