Author Meets Critics: Eileen Hunt's "The First Last Man: Mary Shelley & the Postapocalyptic Imagination"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

This author meets critics roundtable places the concluding volume of Eileen M. Hunt's trilogy on Mary Shelley and political philosophy in dialogue with the leading political theorists working on its themes: the origins of feminist political theory in the Enlightenment and Romantic eras (Nancy Hirshmann), concepts of apocalypse in the history of political thought (Alison McQueen, Ben Jones, Nomi Lazar), the recovery of liminal thinkers and texts in the history of existentialist thought (Liane Hartnett), and the guiding normative question of post-apocalyptic political thought since the time of Mary Shelley's great 1826 pandemic novel 'The Last Man' about the near-extinction of the human species through the spread of war, corruption, and disease: what should human beings do after disaster strikes and threatens to wipe out their very humanity?

Sub Unit

• Division 2: Foundations of Political Theory

Chair

• Eileen M. Hunt University of Notre Dame

Presenters

• Nancy J. Hirschmann The University of Pennsylvania

• Alison McQueen Stanford University

• Ben Taylor Jones Pennsylvania State University

• Nomi Claire Lazar University of Ottawa

• Samuel Piccolo Gustavus Adolphus College