S. D. Chrostowska
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S. D. Chrostowska is a Canadian writer and intellectual historian of modern critical thought. She holds a professorship in 20th century continental thought at
York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...
in Canada.


Biography and research

Sylwia Dominika Chrostowska, born to Polish parents and raised in Poland at the end of the Cold War, completed her PhD at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
at the Centre for Comparative Literature under the supervision of historian Brian Stock. In 2014-2016 she was an
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...
fellow based at Humboldt University in Berlin. Chrostowska's academic work is principally in the history of
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...
and
literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
(18th-20th century Europe). She writes mainly on
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...
Critical Theory and on the critical dimension of
utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
nism and
nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...
. Her first book, ''Literature on Trial'' (2012), examined the rise of modern
literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
in connection with the development of literature as a separate domain. Chrostowska also writes cultural criticism spanning academic and nonacademic genres. ''Matches'' (2015), her wide-ranging collection of philosophical, critical, and literary fragments, was anthologized in ''Short Circuits: Aphorisms, Fragments, and Literary Anomalies'' (Schaffer Press, 2018). In 201
Noxious Sector Press
released ''Something Other than Lifedeath'', a book of articles focusing on her work and edited by David Cechetto. She is a member of the Paris Surrealist Group and coedits the French-language review ''Alcheringa: Le surréalisme aujourd’hui''. ''Utopia in the Age of Survival'' is Chrostowska’s second scholarly book and a pointed intervention into left-wing debates about utopianism, including the theory of utopia, utopian experiments, and practices that she describes as "utopianizing" in their motivation or intent. She draws especially on the writings of French
Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
, the
Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
, and Survivre...et vivre to excavate the utopian energies of May '68 as they wrestled with the contradiction between accelerating economic development and life being generally reduced to survival, including through rampant consumerism. "Survival" is arguably the key concept in the book for working out the conditions, both material and psychological, for a "utopian politics." A large part of the discussion centers around the meaning of the term utopia, our negative and positive attitudes toward it, and ways to pursue utopia in light of the multiple crises facing today's societies. Chrostowska argues that we should rehabilitate the idea of utopia at a time when our reality increasingly resembles dystopia. She co-curated, with Joël Gayraud and Guy Girard, "Marvelous Utopia / Merveilleuse utopie", the 19th International Surrealist Exhibition at Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.


Fiction

Chrostowska's
epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...
''Permission'' is composed of anonymous messages sent to a well-known filmmaker and includes black and white images. ''
Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...
'' called it "one of the most intellectually bracing, technically fascinating Canadian-authored novels" of 2013. Her second novel, ''The Eyelid'', is a critical
dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...
set in near-future Paris, the capital of the world state of Greater America, and tells the story of two travelers through other people's dreams on a quest to save humanity from total insomniac dreamlessness. The book was the Editor's Choice at ''
Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...
,'' which praised its rare ambition and its dramatisation of the individual mind's subversive ability "to dream itself into a better existence." ''The Toronto Stars Alex Good chose it as one of the four best new science-fiction titles. According to German Sierra at ''Full Stop'', the novella "might well become an instant cult book until it makes its way to a much deserved place at the top of any list of utopian-dystopian fiction masterworks." Its unique blend of narrative and social critique stages a dialectical confrontation, typical of the novel of ideas, between dystopian and utopian currents in contemporary capitalist societies.


Books

* ''Utopia in the Age of Survival: Between Myth and Politics'' (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2021) * ''A Cage for Every Child'' (Seattle: Sublunary, 2021) * ''The Eyelid'' (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2020) * ''Matches: A Light Book'', 2nd expanded edition, foreword by
Alexander Kluge Alexander Kluge (born 14 February 1932) is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director.(editor) Early life, education and early career Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany. After growing ...
(Punctum Books, 2019) * ''Literature on Trial: The Emergence of Critical Discourse in Germany, Poland, and Russia, 1700-1800'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012) * ''Permission: A Novel'' (Urbana-Champaign, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2013) * ''Matches: A Light Book'' (Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, 2015) * ''Political Uses of Utopia: New Marxist, Anarchist, and Radical Democratic Perspectives'', coedited with James D. Ingram (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017) In French * ''Feux croisés: Propos sur l'histoire de la survie.'' Préfacé par Alexander Kluge. Traduit par Joël Gayraud (Paris, Klincksieck, 2019)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chrostowska, S. D. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of York University 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers American women novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian historians Canadian women historians Canadian women novelists Canadian women short story writers 21st-century Canadian women writers American women academics Novelists from Ontario