A Time for the Humanities: Futurity and the Limits of Autonomy | by James J. Bono | Tim Dean | Ewa Plonowska Ziarek | ‎ Fordham Univ Pr | ‎ English

Product description Review This book provides a fabulous line up of original and thought-provokingwriters on a topic of vital importance. As the pressure to conform isbeing increasingly felt on all sides--even in areas that we couldpreviously assume were immune from it -- the future, indeed the veryviability, of the humanities confronts us with urgent questions. Thisvolume eloquently raises those questions, and does them more thanjustice.-----Tina Chanter, De Paul UniversityOpens a battlefront and conversation that is likely to preoccupy the next generation.-----Tom Cohen, University at AlbanyWhile arbitrary and dire decisions about our planet are made every day by presidents, generals, bankers and CEOs, those who work in the humanities have a role to play--first, that of caring for words and their nuances, like the difference between "futurity" and "the future," "historicity" and "history," and then, by questioning their applications to current issues. All these vibrant essays, written by some of the finest minds of today's academia, suggest that the spatial closure that transforms the world into a global prison of sameness not only can but must be undone by a rupture ushered in by the heterogeneity of "futurity." Such a new future, less a tense or a time-span than a mode of critical examination, still rhymes with "new styles of architecture," and still hopes to bring about a much needed "change of heart."-----Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania About the Author JAMES J. BONO is Associate Professor of History and of Medicine at the University at Buffalo.TIM DEAN is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Humanities Institute at the University at Buffalo. EWA PLONOWSKA ZIAREK is Julian Park Professor of Comparative Literature and Founding Director of the Humanities Institute at the University at Buffalo.