Negotiating Civic Life: Literature, Film, Politics

by Michael J. Shapiro

Overview

Focused both thematically and methodologically on diverse aspects of civic life, this book elucidates the mentalities and forces involved in the way individuals and collectives negotiate ways of being in common. The chapters feature critical interventions into the civic lives of grief, of things, of Blackness, and of trans identity.
With an emphasis on the historiographic contributions of literature, film, objects and embodied memories of events, Shapiro’s textual analyses treat the way artistic genres supply the critical thinking needed to encourage a more egalitarian and convivial life world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399545747
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2025
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Michael J. Shapiro is Emeritus Professor at The University of Hawai’i, Mānoa.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Exploring Civic Empathy
1. The Civic Lives of Grief
2. Civic Cleansing: Willed Amnesia, Artistic Anamnesis
3. Civic Automobility: Driving White, Driving Black
4. The Civic Lives of Things: Hats and Gloves
5. The Civic Lives of Gender

Epilogue
Index

Editorial Reviews

Michael Shapiro has long been one of the most significant thinkers of the relation between theory, the international, and politics. Through nuanced readings of film and literature concerning trauma and grief, belonging and exclusion, he reflects on his maxim that “ethical reflection becomes possible when negotiation with difference rather than security is the project” A book that speaks powerfully to our contemporary moment.

Stuart Elden

This is a stunning book which proposes a new aesthetico-political theory of civic life. It offers a brilliantly written and hugely imaginative re-posing of the classic political questions of community, belonging, rights and responsibilities. An outstandingly original book by a leading scholar in his field.

Arthur Bradley