Literature and Materialisms sheds light on the current new wave of materialisms and assesses the impact on literary theory and criticism. It maps the similarities and differences between speculative realism, object-oriented philosophy, and vitalism. A genealogy of materialisms, vitalisms, empiricisms, and realist approaches - from Heraclitus to Badiou, including Lucretius, Spinoza, Marx, Althusser, Barad, Spivak, Deleuze, Bennett, Harman, and other contemporary thinkers - puts these new trends into perspective.
This book investigates the relations between literature – from Marquis de Sade to objectivist poetry - and materialism and analyses the material aspects of literature, its structure and texture, its commodification and its capacity to resist market imperatives. It explores how literary style might be understood as a mediation between the ‘immaterial’ and the concrete features of a text.
This volume provides students and academics with an accessible overview of the study of literature and materialism.
By:
Frederic Neyrat
Series edited by:
Ursula Heise,
Guillermina De Ferrari
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781138675704
ISBN 10: 1138675709
Series: Literature and Contemporary Thought
Pages: 187
Publication Date: 16 January 2020
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
,
A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: The Disconcerting Materiality of Literature, 1. Materialism and Belief: On Religion and Politics, 2. Materialism and Economics: On Marxism, Ideology, and Culture, 3. Materialism and Subject: On Anti-Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Feminism, 4. Materialism and Life: On New Materialism and Vitalism, 5. Materialism and Ontology: On Empiricism, Speculative Realism, and Object-Oriented Ontology, 6. Materialism and Realism: On Literary Realism, Naturalism, and Objectivist Poetry, 7. Materialism and Matter: On Physics and Quantum Physics, 8. Materialism and Language: On Linguistics and Literary Creation, Conclusion: Ghost Materialism
Frédéric Neyrat is Associate Professor and Mellon-Morgridge Professor of Planetary Humanities in the English department of UW-Madison, (USA).
