The Humanities Institute at Stony Brook University
Eric Haralson on “Global Citizens, Global Perils: The Limits of an Ideal”
Faculty Zoom Lecture by Eric Haralson/English on “Global Citizens, Global Perils: The Limits of an Ideal”. In a world of proliferating catchphrases, “global citizenship” has proven increasingly popular owing to its infectious idealism combined with its definitional latitude. As branding goes, it is arguably too inclusive and aspirational for its own good. Which structures of feeling, modes of intellectual praxis, and vigorous engagements with a world chronically in need are not encompassed by the rubric of “global citizenship”? This talk will explore ways in which such conceptual flexibility sponsors a laudable activism while its elusiveness leaves many accomplishments floating in suspense. One surprising source of inquiry, teaching, clarification, and even practical guidance for would-be global citizens is the world novel—“the most independent, most elastic, most prodigious of literary forms” (Henry James). Authors often disclaim, if not disdain, the idea that their work amounts to a “how-to” manual for a well-intentioned but perplexed humanity, and yet they comprise a quasi-seminar taking on a burgeoning “world lit” that enlarges our sensibilities, challenges our core belief, and gradually points a way to self-discovery of meaningful actions that embody (and further define) the designation “global citizen.” For illustrative examples, we will turn to excerpts from the following writers: Roberto Bolaño, Can Xue, J. M. Coetzee, Jenny Erpenbeck, Eduardo Galeano, Ma Jian, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Scholastique Mukasonga, Tayeb Salih, W. G. Sebald, and Olga Tokarczuk,. Clearly, this random sampling of world authors does not have all of the (global) answers, but their powerful, trenchant fictions advance the pressing questions. Recorded on March 9, 2021