New book published by Stockholm University Press offers a critical reread of the humanist tradition. In an attempt to give formulation to a sustainable humanism, a number of scholars explore various forms of subjectivity and critique within the humanist tradition.
Another Humanism – Subjectivity and Critique, edited by Carin Franzén, professor of Comparative Literature at Stockholm University, and Nan Gerdes, lecturer in international higher education at the University of Copenhagen, reinvestigates and seeks to revise the tradition of humanism by examining the question of what makes a human in the early modern period, from Michel de Montaigne to Immanuel Kant.
While the problem of human distinctiveness extends far beyond early modernity and has preoccupied thinkers and writers throughout history, it has often been framed through arguments for human uniqueness that reinforce claims of human superiority over other earthly creatures.
Against this background, the volume offers a critical rereading of the humanist tradition and demonstrates its continued relevance today. Engaging with contemporary posthumanist and post-anthropocentric debates—prompted by climate change and the epoch known as the Anthropocene—the book explores various forms of subjectivity and critique within humanism that speak directly to today’s most pressing questions.
The fourteen chapters, together with an introduction by the two editors, examine the diversity and critical potential of early modern subjectivity, addressing issues such as the relationship between humans and animals, early forms of “machine psychology,” and the significance of the emotions for reason.
By invoking the term another humanism, the book highlights how many of the historical texts under discussion occupy an ambivalent position both inside and outside humanism. Bringing these perspectives to light, the anthology aims to advance a broader, less anthropocentric conception of humanism.
The volume will be of significant interest to scholars of early modern literature and philosophy, as well as to researchers concerned with humanist traditions, subjectivity, and the question of the human in both historical and contemporary contexts.
The editors of the book
Carin Franzén is Professor of Comparative Literature at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her research focuses on the history of subjectivity in early modern as well as modern and contemporary European literature.
Nan Gerdes, PhD and postdoc at University of Copenhagen, Roskilde University and Aarhus University in literature, philosophy and drama with strong focus on Early Modern France. Gerdes is a lecturer in international higher education (DIS, Copenhagen) and at the University of Copenhagen.
Stockholm Studies in Culture and Aesthetics
Another Humanism – Subjectivity and Critique is an edited volume of Stockholm Studies in Culture and Aesthetics, a peer-reviewed series of monographs and edited volumes published by Stockholm University Press.
How to access this book
At the Stockholm University Press website you can download an ePub or pdf-file that allows you to read the book online or access it on multiple devices. You may also also order a print copy of the book through the DOI-link: https://doi.org/10.16993/bcz
About the publisher Stockholm University Press
Stockholm University Press is an open access publisher of peer-reviewed academic journals and books. We aim to make journals and books affordable, and to give them the widest possible dissemination, so that researchers around the world can find and access the information they need without barriers.
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