Through a series of case studies spanning the bounds of literature photography essay and
manifesto this book examines the ways in which literary texts do theoretical ethical and
political work. Nicole Simek approaches the relationship between literature theory and public
life through a specific site the French Antillean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and
focuses on two mutually elucidating terms: hunger and irony. Reading these concepts together
helps elucidate irony's creative potential and limits. If hunger gives irony purchase by
anchoring it in particular historical and material conditions irony also gives a literature
and politics of hunger a means for moving beyond a given situation for pushing through the
inertias of history and culture.
