
Speaking Otherwise is a podcast series on the Contemporary, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). In this podcast, we speak to well-known scholars from the humanities and the social sciences on the critical questions of our times.
The World and the Planet
In this episode, Baidik Bhattacharya speaks to Martin Puchner on the relationship between world literature and climate change. Is literature at all relevant in our attempt to address climate change? Does world literature as a transhistorical archive allow one to engage with events like climate change with greater clarity? What is the status of ethics when we join world literature and climate change in a bid to understand the latter? Will literary studies as a discipline change because of its increasing involvement with the debates on climate change?
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Martin Puchner is Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. His research interests include modernism, drama, literary theory, and world literature. He is the author or editor of the following publications: Literature for a Changing Planet (PUP, 2022), The Language of Thieves (2020, Norton)-German edition, Die Sprache der Vagabunden-, The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization (2017, Random House). Gen. ed., The Norton Anthology of World Literature; The Drama of Ideas (2010); co-ed., The Norton Anthology of Drama (2009); ed., Modern Drama: Critical Concepts (2008); Poetry of the Revolution (2006); co-ed., Against Theatre (2006); ed., Six Plays by Henrik Ibsen (2003); Stage Fright (2002).