Environmental art and activism in the Global North have long been known for employing modes such as "doom and gloom," sanctimony, and sentimentality—modes which can overwhelm and alienate audiences. Nicole Seymour tells us a different story. Her lecture will begin by drawing on her book Bad Environmentalism to outline a neglected tradition of alternative art and activism: one that employs comedic modes such as irony, irreverence, and campiness to reflect critically on both our current moment of crisis and on mainstream environmentalism itself—including its whiteness and straightness. However, as she will describe in the second part of her talk, some cultural critics have since declared that comedic modes are in crisis. For instance, the satirical climate-fiction author Karl Taro Greenfeld has worried that the heightened absurdities of life in the 21st-century will quickly eclipse his writing. Meanwhile, a new online generation of white supremacists have been embracing comedic modes historically associated with the progressive Left. Where can comedy go from here? More specifically, what's the future of bad environmentalism and other alternative approaches to environmental crisis? Seymour will conclude her lecture with a few predictions and possibilities.
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