Daniel Shank Cruz, "Ethics for Apocalyptic Times: Theapoetics, Autotheory, and Mennonite Literature" (Penn State UP, 2023)

Dec 24, 2023

Daniel Shank Cruz, an individual exploring literature's role in society through Mennonite literature, discusses how literature can help us navigate crises like the pandemic, climate change, and global fascism. They introduce the concept of theapoetics and discuss its application to queer and decolonial thinking. The podcast also explores the significance of Mennonite literature, the relationship between literature and the Divine, and the transformative power of reading.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

The Power of Literature in Difficult Times

01:41 • 5min

The Significance of Mennonite Literature

06:38 • 7min

Exploring Different Analytical Lenses and the Relationship Between Literature and the Divine

14:03 • 2min

Theopoetics: Reading with Openness to the Divine

16:19 • 15min

Exploring the Relationship Between Mennonite Literature and Theological Concepts

31:08 • 13min

The Transformative Power of Literature and Its Political Implications

44:33 • 2min

Ethics for Apocalyptic Times: Theapoetics, Autotheory, and Mennonite Literature (Penn State UP, 2023) is about the role literature can play in helping readers cope with our present-day crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and the shift toward fascism in global politics. Using the lens of Mennonite literature and their own personal experience as a culturally Mennonite, queer, Latinx person, Daniel Shank Cruz investigates the age-old question of what literature’s role in society should be, and argues that when we read literature theapoetically, we can glean a relational ethic that teaches us how to act in our difficult times.

In this book, Cruz theorizes theapoetics―a feminist reading strategy that reveals the Divine via literature based on lived experiences―and extends the concept to show how it is queer, decolonial, and equally applicable to secular and religious discourse. Cruz’s analysis focuses on Mennonite literature―including Sofia Samatar’s short story collection Tender and Miriam Toew’s novel Women Talking―but also examines a non-Mennonite text, Samuel R. Delany’s novel The Mad Man, alongside practices of haiku and tarot, to show how reading theapoetically is transferable to other literary traditions.

Weaving together close reading and personal narrative, this pathbreaking book makes a significant and original contribution to the field of Mennonite literary studies. Cruz’s arguments will also be appreciated by literary scholars interested in queer theory and the role of literature in society.

Daniel Shank Cruz (they/multitudes) is a queer, disabled boricua who grew up in New York City and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Multitudes is the author of Queering Mennonite Literature: Archives, Activism, and the Search for Community, also published by Penn State University Press.

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