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Imperfect Solidarities

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( 140 ratings, 27 reviews)
Brief Description
Can empathy deliver political change? Does art that elicits emotional identification with others take us where we need to go? In Imperfect Solidarities, writer and art historian Aruna D'Souza offers observations pulled from current events as well as contemporary art that suggest that a feeling of... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Aruna Dโ€™Souza draws from current events ย and contemporary art to suggest that a feeling of understanding or closeness based on emotional attachment fails to generate solidarity.

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Can empathy deliver political change? Does art that elicits emotional identification with others take us where we need to go?

In Imperfect Solidarities, writer and art historian Aruna D'Souza offers observations pulled from current events as well as contemporary art that suggest that a feeling of understanding or closeness based on emotion is an imperfect ground for solidarity. Empathyโ€”and its correlate, loveโ€”is a distraction from the hard work that needs to be done to achieve justice.

Rather, D'Souza contends, we need to imagine a form of political solidarity that is not based on empathy, but on the much more difficult obligation of care. When we can respect the unknowability of the other and still care for and with them, without translating ourselves into their terms, perhaps we will fare better at building political bridges.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9783982389486

Publisher: Floating Opera Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 March 2025

Country: Germany

Imprint: Floating Opera Press

Illustration: 8 color illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 120.0mm

Height: 170.0mm

Weight: 91g

Pages: 116

About the Author

Aruna Dโ€™Souza is a writer and critic based in New York. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and 4Columns.org, where she is a member of the editorial advisory board. Her writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Bookforum, Frieze, Momus, and Art in America, among other places. Her book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the New York Times. She is the recipient of the 2021 Rabkin Prize for art journalism and a 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant.

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