The Ecology of Ideology

His talk is entitled 'The Ecology of Ideology' and will explore resources for an eco-socialist analysis of contemporary ideology in the context of what has variously been called the Anthropocene, the Capitalocene and the Chuthulucene. Among the difficult questions posed by emerging climate breakdown and extreme weather events is the relation of environmental activism and climate justice struggles to earlier but still urgent formations of political struggle. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina offers one context of analysis, in revealing the potential for systematic political breakdown in the face of extreme weather events, a breakdown that is then mapped on to existing structures of oppression associated with racism, policing and news coverage. How can environmental activism begin to intersect with the politics of Black Lives Matter? The question of climate breakdown has become an additional problem of intersectionality in understanding existing struggles and associated forms of solidarity. The talk explores resources in the traditions of Marxist critiques of ideology, in relation to questions of hegemony and intersectionality, before offering a concrete analysis of ideological interpellation in the critical representation of Hurricane Katrina in Claudia Rankine's Citizen: an American lyric (2014).

Dr Drew Milne is a Reader in the English Faculty, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. He edited 'Marxist Literary Theory' with Terry Eagleton (Blackwell, 1996) and 'Modern Critical Thought' (Blackwell, 2003) and has published a number of essays on Marxism and poetics. His collected poems, entitled 'In Darkest Capital' were published by Carcanet in 2017.

Resources:

Stephen Collis, 'Notes towards a Manifesto of the Biotariat': <https://beatingthebounds.com/2014/07/25/notes-towards-a-manifesto-of-the-biotariat/>

Mckenzie Wark, 'Cthulucene, Anthropocene, Capitalocene' <http://www.publicseminar.org/2016/09/chthulu/>

Claudia Rankine / John Lucas, 'August 29, 2005/Hurricane Katrina' <https://vimeo.com/141818727>