Is part of my method, to track the becoming general of singular things, and to Historical present: "I am extremely interested in generalization. In other words, sheįocuses on the particular as a way of theorizing a collective sense of the Of sensual activity toward and beyond survival" (9). These fantasies are fraying can we develop alternative ways of living in theĪsserts, "My method is to read patterns of adjustment in specificĪesthetic and social contexts to derive what's collective about specific modes Have become impossible to attain she suggests that only by recognizing that Namely, to the way in which the lives and livelihoods we have taken for granted Exigency: Berlant's work responds to crises in our conceptions of the "good life,".Various impasses we face can we strive to create alternative conditions for We live today in other words, only by recognizing and understanding the She claims that perceiving the present as a “mediated affect” willĪllow us to better apprehend the conditions of “crisis ordinariness” in which We have formed to fantasies of the good life that are no longer sustainable in Main argument: Berlant theorizes “cruel optimism” as a way of understanding the injurious attachments.That new emergent aesthetic forms are taking hold, alternative genres thatĪllow us to recognize modes of living not rooted in normative good life Recognize that certain “genres” are no longer sustainable in the present and Various impasses we face today, she suggests that it becomes possible to Which she describes as structured through “crisis ordinariness,” and turns toĪffect and aesthetics as a way of apprehending these crises by tracking the Berlant isĮssentially concerned with conditions of living or the state of the “present,” It through day-to-day life when the day-to-day has become unlivable. Matter how injurious or cruel these attachments may be, allows people to make In other words, maintaining attachments that sustain the good life fantasy, no In one’s own or the world’s continuity, but might feel any number of ways,” including not optimistic at all (13). For Berlant, optimism is aįormal or structural feeling, such that an “optimistic attachment is invested Posits “cruel optimism” as a relational dynamic whereby individuals remainĪttached to “compromised conditions of possibility” or “clusters of promises”Įmbedded in desired object-ideas even when they inhibit the conditions forįlourishing and fulfilling such promises (24, 23). Increasingly compromised under postwar neoliberal restructuring. How such fantasies have survived even when conditions for survival are Still remain attached to fantasies of the "good life" her research examines In Cruel Optimism Lauren Berlant reveals thatĭespite deteriorating social, economic, and environmental conditions, people
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