New Books Network Jean-Thomas Tremblay, "Breathing Aesthetics" (Duke UP, 2022)
Nov 30, 2025
Jean-Thomas Tremblay, an Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities at York University, dives into his thought-provoking book, Breathing Aesthetics. He discusses how breathing connects large-scale politics to personal experiences, scrutinizing the crisis of polluted and commodified air since the 1970s. Tremblay critiques therapeutic breathing trends, proposing that art can serve as a resistance to respiratory hazards. He highlights works by artists like Ana Mendieta and Renee Gladman, envisioning breathing as a cultural and environmental survival strategy.
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Breath Connects Form And Politics
- Breathing links aesthetic form and political life across scales, from meter in poetry to environmental injustice in cities.
- Jean-Thomas Tremblay argues respiration shows how biopolitical forces distribute vitality unevenly.
From Eric Garner To COVID
- Tremblay began the dissertation after the Eric Garner murder when 'I Can't Breathe' entered public discourse.
- He finished the book during COVID, which made public breath debates suddenly ubiquitous.
Defining A Focused Breathing Archive
- Tremblay limits his archive to works that explicitly engage respiration formally and politically during a modern 'crisis in breathing.'
- He dates that crisis to intensified pollution, weaponization, and monetization beginning around the 1970s.
