S. D. Chrostowska is an American-Canadian writer and intellectual historian of modern critical thought. She holds a professorship in 20th century continental thought at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...

in Canada.

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 research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

at the Centre for Comparative Literature under the supervision of historian

Brian Stock Brian Stock is the name of: *Brian Stock (footballer) Brian Benjamin Stock (born 24 December 1981) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and was most recently the manager of Weymouth. Born in England, Stock represente ...

. In 2014-2016 she was an

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Rese ...

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 from ...

and literary criticism (18th-20th century Europe). She writes mainly on

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), du ...

Critical Theory, and on the critical dimension of

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

nism and nostalgia. Her first book, ''Literature on Trial'' (2012), examined the rise of modern literary criticism 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.

Fiction

Chrostowska's

epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...

''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 (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

set in near-future Paris, the capital of the

world state World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors. A world gove ...

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 ''

,'' 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 Philosophical fiction refers to the class of works of fiction which devote a significant portion of their content to the sort of questions normally addressed in philosophy. These might explore any facet of the human condition, including the fun ...

, 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. Early life, education and early career Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany. After growing up durin ...

(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 York University faculty 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