Material Insurgency

Andrew M. Rose

Description

In Material Insurgency, Andrew M. Rose examines emerging new materialist and posthuman conceptions of subjectivity and agency and explores their increasing significance for contemporary climate change environmentalism. Working at the intersection of material ecocriticism, posthuman theory, and environmental political theory, Rose critically focuses on the ways social movement organizing might effectively operate within the context of distributed agency. This concept undoes the privileging of rational human actors to suggest agency is better understood as a complex mixture of human and nonhuman forces. Rose explores various representations of distributed agency, from the pipeline politics of the Keystone XL campaign to the speculative literary fiction of Leslie Marmon Silko and Kim Stanley Robinson. Each of these cultural and literary texts provides a window into the possible constitution of a (distributed) environmental politics that does not yet exist and operates as a resource for envisioning environmental actors we cannot necessarily study empirically, because they are still only a prospect, or potential, of our imagination.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Climate Change Environmentalism and Distributed Politics

2. H. D. Thoreau and the Practice of Distributed Knowledges

3. Bacterial Insurgency in Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rainforest

4. The Material Temporalities of Leslie Silko's Almanac of the Dead

5. (Dis)intentional Politics and Its Limits: Crisis and Innovation in Nathaniel Rich's Odds Against Tomorrow and Chang‑rae Lee's On Such a Full Sea

6. The Unknowable Now: Passionate Science and Transformative Politics in Kim Stanley Robinson's Speculative Fiction

Coda
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Science-fiction
• Fantasy
• États-Unis
• Science fiction
• Applied ecology
• United States of America
• USA
• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438484396
• Langue: English

Extrait

Material Insurgency
SUNY series in New Political Science

Bradley J. Macdonald, editor
Material Insurgency
Towards a Distributed Environmental Politics
A NDREW M. R OSE
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Rose, Andrew M., author.
Title: Material insurgency : towards a distributed environmental politics / Andrew M. Rose.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series: SUNY series on New Political Science | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438484372 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438484396 (ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
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For Mom and Dad
Contents
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION
C HAPTER 1 Climate Change Environmentalism and Distributed Politics
C HAPTER 2 H. D. Thoreau and the Practice of Distributed Knowledges
C HAPTER 3 Bacterial Insurgency in Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rainforest
C HAPTER 4 The Material Temporalities of Leslie Silko’s Almanac of the Dead
C HAPTER 5 (Dis)intentional Politics and Its Limits: Crisis and Innovation in Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow and Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea
C HAPTER 6 The Unknowable Now: Passionate Science and Transformative Politics in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Speculative Fiction
C ODA
N OTES
W ORKS C ITED
I NDEX
Acknowledgments
I am, of course, beyond thrilled for the opportunity to publish this work, the culmination of a decade of (material) intellectual labor. It is only possible, however, because so many other people, events, places, and things exerted their influences upon the project at the right—and sometimes even the not-so-right—time. The myriad assemblages that propel an intellectual project through its long and winding trajectory, as much as the unique writer, are the unruly partners of writing process. Writing a book that takes up distributed agency as its focal point, you begin to notice and become generally, though certainly not entirely, more cognizant of these less obvious partnerships. For my own part, I am privileged to have had the opportunity to see this project through its many phases and learn so much from the brilliance of the artists and scholars I have met, in person and word, during the research and writing of this monograph. Before going back to the beginning of the journey, I would like to thank the folks at SUNY Press, especially Michael Rinella, Diane Ganeles, and New Political Series editor Bradley J. MacDonald, for their consistent support of this project and professional and timely labor on its behalf, and to the anonymous readers, who provided detailed and immensely beneficial feedback. The commitment of the New Political Science series to innovative approaches and interdisciplinarity is truly remarkable, and I am humbled and energized by the opportunity to add this small contribution to its intellectual mission.
The earliest work on what would become this book project began during my PhD exams and dissertation process; and though it has developed in ways I could not foresee back then, it also would not exist without those earlier instantiations. More people than I can list here made my graduate experience at the University of Washington (UW) the profound life-altering (in a mostly good way!) experience it was, but I especially want to thank Edmond, Jay, Jane, Lee, Pacharee, Jentery, Brooken, Caitlin, and Erik for being fellow-travelers who continually made me smarter and laugh harder. For everyone who made Pub Night the special ritual it was over the years, may the College Inn live on in the memories we made in its depths. My eternal thanks to Marc for always having the best plans for a writing break, and to Curly for keeping my spirits up with reports from the river. While all of the names on this next list could also be on the former, I want to separately thank the intrepid members of our infamous dissertation reading group: Kate Boyd, Curtis Hisayasu, Jason Morse, Jed Murr, Christian Ravela, Suzanne Schmidt, and Simón Trujillo. Thanks for being wonderful friends, brilliant thinkers, and smart, generous readers all at once. Only hindsight can truly show what a special thing we had going there, just the right balance of academic rigor, good humor, and unconditional support is more rare in graduate school (and academia more broadly) than we knew at the time (even though we sort of knew).
To chronicle all of the ways this project, and my academic career, has been beneficially impacted by Eva Cherniavsky is beyond my ability, so instead I will simply thank her for the wise guidance and her uncanny knack for generative critique that leaves me so immensely indebted. This project would be something else entirely, and much lesser, without her guidance and example, and I remain fundamentally in awe of her intelligence, perceptiveness, and profound generosity. I am so very grateful for Tom Foster, my go-to for all things speculative and science fiction, and Linda Nash, for keeping me grounded in historical context to the best of her ability (any lack thereof in this book is all on me). It’s always good to have some ecocritics in the fold, and Andy Meyer, Eric Morel, and Ned Schaumberg were always insightful interlocutors and great conference partners; and also to know a few who have blazed the trail ahead of you, so I thank Alenda Chang, Jill Gatlin, Erin James, and Jennifer Ladino for the bits of wisdom at critical junctures. The opportunity I had to teach and learn at UW’s Program on the Environment while dissertating was priceless, where what were so often daily, evocative interdisciplinary discussions across the environmental humanities, social sciences, and environmental sciences with my colleagues and students made every day a new one.
I also regularly think back to the professors who sparked the first fires of my academic aspirations. At Lafayette College, Paul Cefalu and Suzanne Westfall inspired me to think big, and someday I know they will even forgive me for becoming an Americanist. And a grand thank you to Laura Walls for leading a certain presumptuous undergrad through an independent study that would launch my long-running and still burning fascination with H. D. Thoreau. And now that I realize independent studies are a form of essentially unpaid, and mostly thankless, labor, I am even more appreciative of her generous support, then and now; it means the world. The very first interdisciplinary environmental studies course I ever took, before I even knew that that was what we were doing, was taught with brilliance and passion by Robert Walls (I still have those books on my shelf, Bob, including The Sacred Forest ). And my current colleagues at Christopher Newport University, who really all deserve individual recognition, do so much to make our English Department a stimulating and welcoming environment. A new faculty member could not ask to arrive to a better department chair and institutional guide than Jean Filetti, and then I lucked out again with Mary Wright, who cares about her department and colleagues in such a meaningful way that it makes us all better. And for advice on all things career and more-than-career related, a special thanks to my hallway pals Rebecca Barclay, Kara Keeling, and John Nichols.
Sadie, my partner in adventures big and small, from coast to coast, thank you for making this whole thing make sense; and for teaching me that when it does no such thing, that’s okay too. And for Lila and Maisie my love is bottomless and enduring. They show me each day what it means to love with a wide open and trusting heart and to see the world through joyful eyes, not to mention their relentless training to make me a morning person (at least sort of, keep working on me).
My love and thanks to Brenda for keeping me humble, as I remain well aware I’m the second smartest sibling (of two); and to Aunt June, for all the books. And, finally, I dedicate this book to George and Elizabeth Rose for all the countless ways they have shaped and supported my life’s path, along its many twists and turns, with a patience and unconditional love that seems beyond the realm of the possible. In summary, I am one lucky (post)human.
A similar version of chapter 3 was originally published in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment vol. 26, no. 1, Winter 2019, as “Insurgent Bacteria: Distributed Agency and Political Subjectivity in Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rainforest. ” Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. And an abbreviated version of chapter 6 was published in Science Fiction Studies , vol. 43, no. 2, Summer 2016, as “The Unknowable Now: Passionate Science and Transformative Politics in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science in the Capital trilogy.”
Introduction
Emerging postanthropocentric conceptions of subjectivity, agency, and knowledge formation practices contain substantial implications