Interventions

Welcome to Interventions, an experimental space where authors rehearse new ideas, reframe questions, or play unbridled within Arcade’s field of the humanities in the world. These short posts embrace the incomplete, the imperfect, and the indeterminate, but they may become much more: for example, the record of a thinker’s turn toward a new paradigm or the rough draft of a chapter in a new book. Rapid publication and immediate responses permit Interventions to foster conversation. The tone of the posts may range from personal to political, while maintaining a critical edge. 

Published regularly, Interventions are often freestanding contributions to Arcade, but some may join our feature called Colloquies. Inquiries and submissions are received by the editor of Interventions.


 

A New American Dream?
Why aren't the facts compelling? This was a question asked by the moderator at the 2009 Sustainability Summit, a gathering of 100 leading architects, engineers, and city officials hosted by the Design Futures Council in Chicago this past month.
Forest Architecture
A recent New York Times profile of architect Roald Gundersen, the founder of Wisconsin-based Whole Trees Architecture, left me reflecting on the meaning of sustainable building in the early 21st century.
Lawrence Venuti and Apocryphal Lorca
Lawrence Venuti reviewed my Apocryphal Lorca in the TLS a few weeks ago.  Marjorie asked me privately what I thought of this review so I thought I would explain my position in public.  My general policy is to be thankful for the attention rather than to object to misreadings.
Hidden Things in Utopia
Thomas More's Utopia (1516) is an odd but inescapable model for early modern European and transatlantic prose fiction, including the first novels. In the next few weeks I will reflect here on how an aspect of More's fictional commonwealth has a predictive power over later fictions: that is, what cannot be seen, done, or said in Utopia.
Thoughts on Literary History II
The narrative structure of literary history compels us into particular assumptions, in particular, with the assumption of an originary moment.  Such concerns are to be found throughout traditional Chinese discourses on literature, as well as in their modern, literary historical heirs.  For example, I've just finished teaching the section on Han, Wei, and Western Jin poetry in my literary hist