Dissertation Full 2

Sympathetic Imagination: Posthumanist Thought in Electronic Literature and Games by Kent Aardse A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2016 © Kent Aardse 2016 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. !ii Abstract Martha Nussbaum insists on the power of “sympathetic imagining” for considering the lives of nonhuman animals. Literature, for Nussbaum, is a powerful site for imaging the lives of animals. This study extends Nussbaum’s “sympathetic imagining” into the realm of digital art–– namely, electronic literature and digital games. I explore how digital art intersects with posthumanism, via three distinct areas: biopolitics, animal studies, and eco-criticism. Posthumanism rejects anthropocentrism in favour of considering our own affinities and similarities with all living creatures in the world. It is a call to pay strict attention to our shared finitude and vulnerability with nonhumans, and change our ways of thinking and being accordingly to ensure the continued survival of our world and its inhabitants. I argue that digital media affords us the ability to think past our anthropocentrism, opening up a space for us to consider our relationship to nonhuman animals, other humans, and the ecological world. I provide critical readings of electronic literature and digital games, which I believe illustrate the sympathetic imagining power of digital media. I see digital media as providing a site of speculation, a means to better understand and consider the role and position of the human imbricated and implicated within a networked ecology consisting of a multitude of creatures of life, all subjects of finitude and vulnerability. !iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank Professor Beth Coleman, who encouraged me to follow an unclear path, and supported me even when I had no idea of how to shape this project. She trusted me to find a way, and that trust allowed me to follow my interests and complete my work. I would also like to thank the other two members of my dissertation committee, Professor Marcel O’Gorman and Professor Aimée Morrison. Their grad classes introduced me to the crucial theories and ideas that contributed greatly to this dissertation. They have both been extremely helpful mentors and teachers who have helped me throughout my entire time at the University of Waterloo. In particular, Professor O’Gorman had many long talks with me about posthumanism and electronic literature, and gave me the courage and confidence to enter uncharted territory. A special thanks goes to all of the wonderful graduate students in the English department at the University of Waterloo. In particular, I want to thank Adam Bradley and Jesse Hutchison - they have helped me by challenging my ideas through many good-natured arguments and discussions, and have always been there to commiserate and complain. I would also like to thank my family for all their encouragement and support. My parents, Theo and Lorie Aardse, have always been interested and supportive during my extended run as a student of higher learning. I also want to thank my soon-to-be family, Nina and Barry Freiburger, who have welcomed me into their family and made Ontario feel like home. This brings me to my most important and heartfelt thank you, to my best friend and future wife, Amanda Freiburger. I wouldn’t have been able to finish this without your love and encouragement. Thank you for being so wonderful and supportive. !iv Dedication To my favourite person, Amanda Freiburger. You have opened the world up to me with your love and support. Olive juice. !v Table of Contents Author’s Declaration …………………………………………………………………….. ii Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….. iii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………… iv Dedication ……………………………………………………………………………….. v Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………… vi Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 1 ………………………………………………………………………………… 32 Chapter 2 ………………………………………………………………………………… 66 Chapter 3 ………………………………………………………………………………… 115 Chapter 4 ………………………………………………………………………………… 160 Coda …….………………………………………………………………………………. 201 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………… 204 !vi Introduction Where Have all the Humanists Gone? In Super Sad True Love Story (2010), Gary Shteyngart presents a future in which America has been weakened by financial crisis, and has turned to China for credit. The novel's protagonist, Lenny Abramov, is the son of a Russian immigrant janitor and consumer of “bound, printed, non streaming Media artifact[s]” (90), otherwise known as books. Lenny works for Post-Human Services, a company responsible for extending the life of its clients through the use of supplements, dietary regulations, and "the constant shedding of blood and skin for various physical tests" (57). Lenny's world is one in which books are simple, quant artifacts of a bygone era, replaced by tablet-like devices called äppärät, which are literally tethered to each individual through nano-technology, just as our smart phones are figuratively tethered to us. Like the current cultural debate over the stability and reflexivity of language, wherein language is seen as a complex, organic, dynamic tool, the use of äppärät has brought about the (d)evolution of language. As Lenny converses with the object of his affection, the young and beautiful Eunice Park, responds, "'LPT,' she said. 'TIMATOV. ROFLAARP. PRGV. Totally PRGV'' (22). Lenny’s internal dialogue follows: "The youth and their abbreviations" (22), and later Lenny remarks on his love for "hearing language actually being spoken by children" (53, italics in original). Shteyngart represents a plausible near future, one in which the corporeal existence of both humans and books is threatened. Screens have replaced pages, and "alkalines and smart technology" (18) have replaced human biologic systems and materials. Digital media already are bringing forth a similar scenario to that of Shteyngart’s vision for the future. Shteyngart’s novel recognizes that that both literature and the human are concepts !1 in flux. Not only are these concepts shifting, but also they are inextricably bound. Conceptions of the human being have always been shaped by and considered through various media. As the acts of reading and communication shift from the page to the screen, new forms of literature and new understandings of the human begin to emerge. Posthumanism provides a framework for understanding new works of digital literature, while at the same time the digital provides the conceptual space for exploring posthumanist themes. At this critical moment wherein our conceptions of the human and literature are questioned through digital technology, I bring to bear the framework of posthumanist philosophy to digital media. I argue that digital media in general, and electronic literature and video games in particular, provide a unique conceptual space from which we can explore posthumanist themes in the areas of biopolitics, animal studies, and eco- criticism. These new works take full advantage of the digital platform, while at the same time carrying forth a literary tradition of exploring the human condition through the use of thoughtful, deliberate language experiments. Electronic literature, then, as a form of experimental literary writing intermixed with multimodal elements of audio and film, allows us to think through our implication and imbrication within a networked ecology of humans, animals, and machines. The value of print literature has always been in asking us to explore the human condition. The works discussed herein provide new literary experiences in a digital environment, which I argue allow us to interrogate the notion of a posthuman condition. The main questions I address in this projects are: what is posthumanism? How does posthumanism extend or break away from the tradition of humanism? What is the importance of posthumanist themes for our contemporary times? Are works of digital art necessarily posthumanist, due to their reliance on digital technology? How do these themes come to the fore !2 in works of electronic literature and video games? Thus, my readings of electronic literature and video games attempt to explore how electronic literature and video games bring out the themes of biopolitics, animality, and eco-criticism, in an effort to show how the digital platform is a unique space for thinking through posthumanism. This introduction provides a brief history of humanism, in order to situate posthumanism within a historical framework. Throughout this discussion, I explore various ways in which media frame and construct understandings of the human. I discuss the various ways in which print technology helped disseminate humanist philosophy, notably creating a distinct space for itself away from the teachings of the church. Posthumanism, by contrast, marks a moment in time wherein the rise of cybernetics and systems theory encourages us to reconsider the relationship of humans, machines, and animals. The purpose of this is twofold: firstly, in situating humanism as a philosophy indebted to print, I am able to theorize digital technology as bound within a posthumanist understanding of our contemporary world; secondly, a discussion of humanism

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