The Child to Come: Life after the Human Catastrophe

by Rebekah Sheldon

Generation Anthropocene. Storms of My Grandchildren. Our Children’s Trust. Why do these and other attempts to imagine the planet’s uncertain future return us—again and again—to the image of the child? In The Child to Come , Rebekah Sheldon demonstrates the pervasive conjunction of the imperiled child and the threatened Earth and blisteringly critiques the logic of catastrophe that serves as its motive and its method.  Sheldon explores representations of this perilous future and the new figurations of the child that have arisen in response to it. Analyzing catastrophe discourse from the 1960s to the present—books by Joanna Russ, Margaret Atwood, and Cormac McCarthy; films and television series including Southland Tales , Battlestar Galactica , and Children of Men ; and popular environmentalism—Sheldon finds the child standing in the place of the human species, coordinating its safe passage into the future through the promise of one more generation. Yet, she contends, the child figure emerges bound to the very forces of nonhuman vitality he was forged to contain.  Bringing together queer theory, ecocriticism, and science studies, The Child to Come draws on and extends arguments in childhood studies about the interweaving of the child with the life sciences. Sheldon reveals that neither life nor the child are what they used to be. Under pressure from ecological change, artificial reproductive technology, genetic engineering, and the neoliberalization of the economy, the queerly human child signals something new: the biopolitics of reproduction. By promising the pliability of the body’s vitality, the pregnant woman and the sacred child have become the paradigmatic figures for twenty-first century biopolitics. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Academic

195 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rule of the thumb: when the book is produced by University of Something Press, it is not a volume made to be read, but to serve the career of some academic bureaucrat. The text is barely readable, yet I am sure Sheldon has just increased the monthly pension plan which will be paid by the exorbitant student loans. After all Education is just a marketing term for a get rich scheme that has gotten out of control.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent surprise, and I say surprise because I personally wasn't anticipating getting enthused about Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go or McCarthy's The Road.
I chose this out of the many U of MN Press books that looked amazing at the recent SLSA in Atlanta--in part because I was intrigued in exploring the intersection of astute critique and the experience of living in a household with 2 children right now.
Plus, brilliant moments like the juxtaposition of the LBJ peace child ad and 2001: A Space Odyssey starchild!
I've so much positive to say about this volume!!

[ianridewood is on Storygraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

While sometimes caught by distraction, these are branches on an otherwise strong tree (of life). That "as performative figurations, the child and the planet sentimentalize stasis in the service of life" is made clear by Sheldon: we cannot build walls to keep out the future.