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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Osborne , Alex Morden Title: Shaking, Breaking, Remaking Anxiety in Contemporary American Literature, 1990-Present General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Shaking, Breaking, Remaking: Anxiety in Contemporary American Literature, 1990-Present Alexandra Morden Osborne A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Arts. School of English, August 2020. Word count: 58, 357 1 Abstract This thesis investigates anxiety in contemporary American literature from 1990-present. Through analysis of the work of Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, David Foster Wallace, and Junot Díaz, I develop a theory of literary anxiety that is attentive to the ways in which anxiety’s presence in texts disrupts established narratives, unpicks both characters’ and authors’ senses of identity, and fuels contemporary constructions of temporality in which the future is uncertain or even entirely denied. The thesis’ opening chapter considers anxiety in Paul Auster’s and Siri Hustvedt’s illness narratives, reflecting on the position of liminality these narratives occupy between fiction and non-fiction. Chapter Two analyses short stories by David Foster Wallace and Junot Díaz in order to demonstrate the form’s particular suitability for the representation of anxiety, as well as the ways in which this anxiety interacts with form. Chapter Three thinks about anxiety and masculinity in the context of the #MeToo movement and allegations of sexual harassment made against Junot Díaz in 2018. Lastly, Chapter Four investigates the links between anxiety, trauma, and temporality in Wallace’s and Husvedt’s writing. With attention to the slippery, contentious, and multiple conceptualisations of anxiety, which range from apparently quotidian or ‘natural’ states of anxiety through to clinical diagnoses of anxiety disorders, I examine patterns in anxiety’s representation in American literature, as well as in the sources of this anxiety. While remaining grounded in literary analysis, I employ a range of methodologies drawing from studies of phenomenology, accelerationism, and queer theory, among others, with a view to approaching anxiety from as many angles as possible. This allows for a fuller understanding of anxiety as a whole, as I believe such an understanding, contingent as it is on insights into the unsettling and precarious nature of our current existence under neoliberal capitalism, relies on an interdisciplinary approach. Key words: America, Anxiety, Body, Contemporary, Cultural, Disorder, Fiction, Form, Humanities, Identity, Literature, Medical, Mind, Narrative, Pathology, Phenomenology, Politics, Precarity, Psychology, Temporality, Time, Trauma. 2 Acknowledgements Writing and completing a thesis on anxiety has had its fair share of anxious moments – which of course, I have used for analytical purposes! I am eternally grateful for the support and encouragement of a number of people who have helped me overcome these moments and reach the finish line. First and foremost, I would like to thank my three supervisors: Dr. Andrew Blades, Professor Laura Salisbury, and Professor Ulrika Maude. Throughout my studies, Andrew, Laura, and Ulrika have offered not only brilliant, constructive, and thorough feedback, but also invaluable personal support. It has been an immense privilege to work with such intelligent, inspiring, and kind academics, and their faith in me has lifted me up when things felt hard. Their guidance was also instrumental in my securing South, West, and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWW DTP) funding, which in turn, allowed me to visit archives, build connections with students across the country, and present at my first international conference. My thanks, of course, then, also go to all those involved in the DTP, who have helped to make all this possible. I would like to thank Dr. Maria Vaccarella and Dr. Theo Savvas for their contributions to my thesis through the upgrade process, and Dr. Victoria Bates for facilitating the Medical Humanities Training Programme, which has been a really useful forum for debate as well as professional development. During my first week of study at Bristol, I was fortunate enough to meet four amazing women who were also just beginning their PhD journeys. To Chiara, Emma, Penny, and Gaia, I extend heartfelt thanks and immense love. I honestly don’t think I could have finished my thesis without them and their friendship: from the mountainous homemade dinners, to the evenings spent laughing and drinking, to the hours of actual academic discussion and problem-solving, I know I have made a set of lifelong companions: long may the grad lads reign! Thanks, too, to Steve for nights of stress-busting gaming and pulpy fantasy TV viewing, and to Joan, Pam, and Louise for knowing the answers to tricky questions and letting me read their writing to see what a completed PhD in English Literature looks like. Lastly, I want to thank my partner, Tom; my parents, Sarah and Matt; and my brother, Evan. Tom has been a source of constant love and support throughout this process, and his excellent cooking skills, sense of humour, positivity, and co-parenting of several thriving house plants have all made for a calm and happy home even as the stress of finishing the thesis has hit. As for my family, they have endured a stressed daughter and sister with grace, warmth, and patience: I love you all very much, and there’ll be soya cappuccinos on me next time we see each other. 3 Author’s Declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ............................................................. DATE:.......................... 4 Table of Contents Introduction: An(other) Age of Anxiety…………………………………………………………………………………6 Chapter 1: Agency, Authorship, and the Anxiety-Event: Selfhood in Illness Narrative…………23 The Disruption of Narrative and the Anxiety-Event…………………………………………………39 Proxy Bodies and the Multiplicity of Anxiety……………………………………………………….….53 Chapter 2: ‘Under the Surface of Things’: Short Stories and Anxious Masks………………….……59 Imminence, Brevity, Temporality: Anxiety and the Short Form……………………….………64 Anxious Masks, Masking Anxiety…………………………………………………………………………….80 Chapter 3: ‘The Proper Path of Dominican Male-Itude’: Anxiety and Hypermasculinity in Junot Díaz…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..95 The Shadow of the Father………………………………………………………………………………….…107 Homosexuality and the Threat of the Feminine……………………………………….……………118 Violently Macho: Shows of Strength……………………………………………………………..………128 Saying Too Much: Exposing Hypermasculine Performance……………………………………132 Chapter 4: ‘Chemically Troubled Times’: Traumatic Futures, Anxious Futures…………..……..136 The Future’s Anxious Temporalities………………………………………………………………………143 Technology and Future-Trauma…………………………………………………………………………….155 Conclusion: Towards a Theory of Literary Anxiety…………………………………………………………….167 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..178 5 Introduction: An(other) Age of Anxiety Though dunes still hide from the eye The shining shore, Already by a certain exciting kind of discomfort I know the ocean near. For mind and whining gull Are saying something, Or trying to say, about time And the anxious heart.1 -- We belong to our kind, Are judged as we judge, for all gestures of time And all species of space respond in our own Contradictory dialect, the double talk Of ambiguous bodies, born like us to that Natural neighbourhood which denial itself Like a friend confirms; they reflect our status, Temporals pleading for eternal life with The infinite impetus of anxious spirits, Finite in fact yet refusing to be real.2 We live in anxious times. In his poem ‘The Age of Anxiety,’ written during the Second World War and published in 1947, W.H. Auden presents four