The Sublime of the Political

In an age of immediate and global exchange of information, the ability to theorize about political conditions remains largely an elite, technocratic, and esoteric enterprise. In this timely intervention, Dean Caivano and Sarah Naumes argue that storytelling in the form of narrative and autoethnography creates an emancipatory potential through its ability to theorize from below, welcoming marginalized and excluded voices. Drawing from the disciplines of political studies, philosophy and literary studies, this volume offers a new assessment of political texts through the lens of the sublime as a fertile terrain to challenge who can write and disseminate political ideas - and how.

Dean Caivano is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Department of Politics at York University in Toronto where he also teaches political theory and American politics. His research looks at the radical democratic vision of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophys as well as at Hannah Arendt, Frankfurt School thinkers (first and second generation), American politics, and contemporary French political philosophy. He has published on the thought of Herbert Marcuse, the neo-liberalization of post-secondary education, political heroism, and the de-democratizing effects of the War on Terror.
Sarah Naumes is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Department of Politics at York University in Toronto where she teaches International Relations with a focus in contemporary security studies. She has published in and on narrative and autoethnography in Millennium and Journal of Narrative Politics. Her research explores the ways that pain and trauma are experienced and theorized by veterans of the Canadian and United States armed forces.