Ethics for Apocalyptic Times

Ethics for Apocalyptic Times 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 literatures 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 theapoeticsa feminist reading strategy that reveals the Divine via literature based on lived experiencesand extends the concept to show how it is queer, decolonial, and equally applicable to secular and religious discourse. Cruzs analysis focuses on Mennonite literatureincluding Sofia Samatars short story collection Tender and Miriam Toews novel Women Talkingbut also examines a non-Mennonite text, Samuel R. Delanys 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. Cruzs arguments will also be appreciated by literary scholars interested in queer theory and the role of literature in society.