Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.05.2020, Síða 215

AnA StAnićević
214
A B S T R A C T
Planetary Becomings and Handsewn Publications
The Biggest Questions and the Smallest Presses
In the Anthropocene, as man-made climate change threatens our future and an-
nounces the end of the world as we know it, the question inevitably rises whether
there is still room for literature in its conventional form. The twenty-first century
has been characterized by the rise of small presses that go against the mainstream
and base their activity on a different take on literature, book publishing and the ma-
teriality of the book. They operate within the avant-garde tradition and aim to rev-
olutionize the prevailing aesthetics and mainstream cultural practices. This change
within the literary field finds its expression in a renewed focus on: books as objects,
limited editions, experimental forms and aesthetics, conceptual and performative
practices and alternative means of distribution. This movement within the cultural
field can be linked to an alternative hedonism, which is characterized by a lifestyle
that raises ecological awareness, combined with the individuals taking pleasure in
consuming less and in a different way. I will demonstrate how the small press activ-
ity is connected with alternative hedonism’s critique of capitalism and how it forms
one of the most interesting embodiments of a new environmental discourse in the
literature of nordic countries.
Keywords: small presses, the nordic countries, anthropocene, alternative hedonism,
paratext
Ana Stanićević
Doktorsnemi í menningarfræði
Íslensku- og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands
Sæmundargötu 2
IS-102 Reykjavík, Ísland
ans29@hi.is