HLVK03888U Comparative Literature: Unguessed Kinships: New Materialism, Relational Ontology and Ecology

Along with a growing resistance to anthropocentrism, a number of related strands of theory like actor-network theory (ANT), object-oriented ontology (OOO), and New Materialism have attempted to rethink the relation of human and non-human entities in recent years. The idea that these relations are determined by entanglement and kinship rather than superiority and inferiority leads to a dehierarchization, unsettles clear-cut boundaries between the human and non-human as well as the organic and inorganic, and thus also generates new understandings of how matter matters. In this regard, a redistribution of notions of agency becomes central. Counteracting the traditional idea of matter being “dull,” “passive,” and “dead,” Jane Bennett, for example, argues that agency is not limited to living human beings (or plants, animals, etc.) but can also be ascribed to, or is even an intrinsic property of inanimate entities. In her book Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, she explores the potential of “vibrant” materials for political theory and ecological philosophy. The heightened focus on material and corporeal entanglements as well as the claim that agency, dynamic force, and energy often flow across conceptual boundaries and interrupt some of our most prominent cultural dualisms also makes New Materialism a matter of feminism, queer theory, and race.

In a combination of lectures and seminars during the first six weeks, we will get an overview of the major strands of theory relevant for the topic of our course and read texts by some of the most important authors: Bruno Latour (ANT), Graham Harman and Timothy Morton (OOO), Jane Bennett and Karen Barard, as well as chapters from the anthologies New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics and Material Feminisms.

We will then turn to analyses of specific matters and phenomena from this perspective like stone (Jeffrey Jerome Cohen), electricity, metal, trash (Jane Bennett), or mushrooms (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing), and also attempt our own approaches: after a combination of lectures, seminars, and collaborative brainstorming workshops, students will present a new materialist examinations of a matter of their choice in small groups.

The last part of the course will follow the format of the second and will be dedicated to the question of matter, materiality and entanglement in literature and art. How are the relations between human and non-human entities and matters reflected in different artforms? What about the materiality of literature and art itself? To what extent can matters like words or paint have agency and form alliances with human beings?