Embracing the Cruel Optimism of Phenomenological Writing

Abstract

This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed phenomenological research: writing and reading and thinking that began in graduate school and has not let up since. This is the writing that takes me places I never imagined I could go. In this article, I explore how the enraptured, creative experiences I have when writing the idea, and all I let go of or put on hold to keep attempting to write it eventually became a relation of cruel optimism. The article serves as a reminder that writing to fulfill the demands of the entrepreneurial institution gets us something very different than the writing that emerges from a constant desire to engage with words. It gestures toward opportunities to share our work, our ideas, our thinking in ways that move beyond the published, legitimized neoliberal page.