Between Gaia and Ground : Four Axioms of Existence and the Ancestral Catastrophe of Late Liberalism

In Between Gaia and Ground Elizabeth A. Povinelli theorizes the climatic, environmental, viral, and social catastrophe present as an ancestral catastrophe through which that Indigenous and colonized peoples have been suffering for centuries. In this way, the violence and philosophies the West relies on now threaten the West itself. Engaging with the work of Glissant, Deleuze and Guattari, Césaire, and Arendt, Povinelli highlights four axioms of existence—the entanglement of existence, the unequal distribution of power, the collapse of the event as essential to political thought, and the legacies of racial and colonial histories. She traces these axioms' inspiration in anticolonial struggles against the dispossession and extraction that have ruined the lived conditions for many on the planet. By examining the dynamic and unfolding forms of late liberal violence, Povinelli attends to a vital set of questions about changing environmental conditions, the legacies of violence, and the limits of inherited Western social theory. Between Gaia and Ground also includes a glossary of the keywords and concepts that Povinelli has developed throughout her work. "Between Gaia and Ground examines four axioms of existence that have emerged in recent years across a significant segment of critical theory: the entanglement of existence; the unequal distribution of power to affect the local and transversal terrains of this entanglement; the multiplicity and collapse of the event as the sine qua non of political thought; and the racial and colonial history that informed modern western ontologies and epistemologies and the concept of the west as such. Beyond these axioms, Between Gaia and Ground is interested in the broader anticolonial struggles from which they emerged and a reactionary formation, late liberalism, which has attempted to remold, blunt, and redirect these struggles in the context of contemporary climatic, environmental, viral and social collapse. Elizabeth Povinelli treats these axioms as distinct theoretical statements, demonstrating that they are part of much broader discursive surfaces reflecting opposing currents in the direction of political thought and action in the wake of geontopower. Between Gaia and Ground seeks to show how a seemingly casual syntactic arrangement of theoretical statements results in dramatically differing paradigms for figuring the present as a coming catastrophe (l'catastrophe à venir) and as an ancestral one (l'catastrophe ancestral/histoire)"-- Provided by publisher "Between Gaia and Ground examines four axioms of existence that have emerged in recent years across a significant segment of critical theory: the entanglement of existence; the unequal distribution of power to affect the local and transversal terrains of this entanglement; the multiplicity and collapse of the event as the sine qua non of political thought; and the racial and colonial history that informed modern western ontologies and epistemologies and the concept of the west as such. Beyond these axioms, Between Gaia and Ground is interested in the broader anticolonial struggles from which they emerged and a reactionary formation, late liberalism, which has attempted to remold, blunt, and redirect these struggles in the context of contemporary climatic, environmental, viral and social collapse. Elizabeth Povinelli treats these axioms as distinct theoretical statements, demonstrating that they are part of much broader discursive surfaces reflecting opposing currents in the direction of political thought and action in the wake of geontopower. Between Gaia and Ground seeks to show how a seemingly casual syntactic arrangement of theoretical statements results in dramatically differing paradigms for figuring the present as a coming catastrophe (l'catastrophe à venir) and as an ancestral one (l'catastrophe ancestral/histoire)."-- Fourni par l'éditeur In Between Gaia and Ground Elizabeth A. Povinelli theorizes the climatic, environmental, viral, and social catastrophe present as an ancestral catastrophe through which that Indigenous and colonized peoples have been suffering for centuries. In this way, the violence and philosophies the West relies on now threaten the West itself. Engaging with the work of Glissant, Deleuze and Guattari, Cesaire, and Arendt, Povinelli highlights four axioms of existence-the entanglement of existence, the unequal distribution of power, the collapse of the event as essential to political thought, and the legacies of racial and colonial histories. She traces these axioms' inspiration in anticolonial struggles against the dispossession and extraction that have ruined the lived conditions for many on the planet. By examining the dynamic and unfolding forms of late liberal violence, Povinelli attends to a vital set of questions about changing environmental conditions, the legacies of violence, and the limits of inherited Western social theory. Between Gaia and Ground also includes a glossary of the keywords and concepts that Povinelli has developed throughout her work Cover Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Section I 1. The Four Axioms of Existence 2. Toxic Late Liberalism Section II 3. Atomic Ends: The Whole Earth and the Conquered Earth 4. Toxic Ends: The Biosphere and the Colonial Sphere 5. Conceptual Ends: Solidarity and Stubbornness Postscript Glossary Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z "Elizabeth A. Povinelli theorizes how the legacies of colonial violence and the ways the dispossession and extraction that destroyed Indigenous and colonized peoples' lives now poses an existential threat to the West."-- Provided by publisher