After Postmodernism: Ethical Paradigms in Contemporary American Fiction Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München vorgelegt von Andrew Frederick Allen aus Torrance, CA USA 2021 Referent/in: Prof. Dr. Klaus Benesch Korreferent/in: Prof. Dr. Raoul Eshelman Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 17.07.2018 Allen 1 Table of Contents Introduction 3 1 After Postmodernism 14 1.1 Introduction 14 1.2 Theories Extending Postmodernism 14 1.2.1 Altermodernism 14 1.2.2 Metamodernism 20 1.2.3 Post-postmodernism 25 1.2.4 Cosmodernism 33 1.3 Theories Deviating from Postmodernism 38 1.3.1 Hypermodernism 38 1.3.2 Performatism 46 1.3.3 Digimodernism 53 1.4 The Importance of Ethics 61 2 Postmodern Ethics and the Ethical Dominant 65 2.1 Introduction 65 2.2 Postmodern Ethics and its Discontents 65 2.3 An Ethical Dominant? 74 2.4 Conclusion 77 3 The Period After Postmodernism 78 3.1 A New World Order 78 3.1.1 The End of Postmodernity 78 3.1.2 A New Modernity 83 3.1.3 The Death of Privilege 85 Allen 2 3.1.4 An Ethical Gap 88 3.2 Signs of Postmodernism's Passing: Three Ethical Paradigms 90 3.2.1 The Virtue of Selfishness 90 3.2.2 A Higher Power 92 3.2.3 The Ecological Metanarrative 98 3.3 Conclusion 100 4 The Virtue of Selfishness 101 4.1 Introduction 101 4.2 Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill 106 4.3 Big If by Mark Costello 128 5. A Higher Power 147 5.1 Introduction 147 5.2 The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides 152 5.3 Jamesland by Michelle Huneven 172 6 The Ecological Metanarrative 188 6.1 Introduction 188 6.2 Freedom by Jonathan Franzen 193 6.3 A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle 212 7 Conclusion 234 Works Cited 240 Allen 3 Introduction The idea for this project grew out of the results of my Master's thesis, which examined to what extent David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest (1996) could be considered postmodern, and whether it had truly gone beyond postmodernism into something new and different. As part of that work, I compared the novel to various definitions of postmodernism, including one developed by Brian McHale that posited that postmodern works manifested an ontological dominant as opposed to the epistemological dominant he believed was present in modern works. While I found sections in Infinite Jest that seemed to reflect both ontological and epistemological concerns, which would have made the novel a postmodern/modern hybrid and would have been consistent with a number of theories about contemporary fiction, what I discovered instead was that Infinite Jest was, to a large extent, much more concerned with ethical questions. This led me to tentatively propose that the period after postmodernism may be characterized by an ethical dominant. My dissertation started as an attempt to examine this possibility more fully, to see if an ethical dominant applies to works other than Infinite Jest, and to investigate what sort of ethics might be explored in such works. The original title of this dissertation was The Ethical Turn in Contemporary American Fiction, which seemed to describe the phenomenon I was observing rather concisely. However, after more closely examining the “ethical turn” in philosophy and literary theory that was already being debated and had been detailed, for example, in Mapping the Ethical Turn: A Reader in Ethics, Culture, and Literary Theory (2001), I quickly realized that the content of the ethics described by this terminology was more consistent with the postmodern era, and probably represented the end phase of postmodernism rather than the beginning of some new period. The results of my research were turning up completely different ethical paradigms. To avoid confusion, I removed the phrase “ethical turn” from my title. Similarly, I Allen 4 decided not to employ the phrase “ethical dominant,” both because I did not want to be shackled to McHale's theory and because I don't believe that an entire cultural and historical period can be summed up in one simple concept. McHale's theory is a useful tool, and I will explore the possibility of an ethical dominant in a later chapter in order to demonstrate that my theory is consistent with his, but I didn't want to impose unnecessary limits on the application of my research. Instead, my dissertation is designed to be compatible with most of the contemporary theories about what comes after postmodernism. Such a design required that I first examine those theories in depth, and compare and contrast them to seek out areas of agreement and dispute. This examination makes up the content of my first chapter. Here, I evaluate the following theories that describe what comes after postmodernism: Nicholas Bourriaud's altermodernism, metamodernism – a theory proposed by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, Jefferey Nealon's post- postmodernism, Christian Moraru's cosmodernism, Gilles Lipovetsky's hypermodernism, Raoul Eshelman's performatism, and Alan Kirby's digimodernism. I summarize and assess each of them, and then explore what they have in common. These theories all try to go beyond postmodernism in some way, and all of them begin with the proposition that the postmodern era has ended. I've divided them into two categories: those that seem to try to extend postmodern theory into a new form, and those that try to make a clean break with postmodernism and propose something radically different. In either case, the results of my analysis clearly indicate that a renewed interest in ethics is of concern to most if not all of these theories. As the different theories vary widely in theoretical content, from the technological determinism of digimodernism to the high-speed capitalism of hypermodernism to the modern/postmodern hybrid of metamodernism, it may well be that the only constant is the need for a contemporary ethics. It is my hope that my thesis identifies Allen 5 a connection among these theories. In my second chapter, I present my argument that the renewed interest in ethics and ethical systems is directly related to ethical weaknesses in postmodernism. Some of the harshest critics have claimed that postmodernism is not ethical at all, that it represents a nihilistic relativism that negates any attempt to think ethics. This view is reflected in some of the novels I examine here. However, a postmodern concept of ethics emerged and began to gain prominence during the aforementioned “ethical turn,” which generally explores a Lévinasian ethics of “being for the other.” Such an ethics is compatible with major figures of postmodern thought such as Derrida (who promoted it) and Foucault, as well as movements that represent the marginalized, such as feminism and queer theory. I will examine some criticisms of postmodernism and more specifically its ethics, to reveal the kind of discontent that has arisen. This short section will serve primarily as background for the chapters that follow and is not intended to be a complete and thorough examination of postmodernism and its innumerable critics. After this, I will present an argument that the concept of an ethical dominant would expand Brian McHale's proposal that postmodernism reflects an ontological dominant. In my third chapter, I present a short periodization concept that draws on the ideas explored in my first two chapters, in order to offer an explanation for the renewed interest in ethical structures or systems. I propose that postmodernity ends with the end of the Cold War, and that worldwide political and economic changes, spurred by the rise of the Internet, bring about a new mood of hope and uncertainty, triggering a need for ethical guidance. In some ways this new period resembles modernity, with its reawakened belief in the power of technology to make the world a better place, but it is a modernity tempered by a postmodern awareness of what could go wrong. During this chapter, I will introduce the three ethical Allen 6 paradigms that I intend to explore in my close readings of contemporary fiction, and explain why I think these specific paradigms have arisen as potential responses to the weaknesses of postmodernism. The first paradigm I will examine is a neoliberal ethics of selfishness, which I will draw from objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Many of the theories I examine in Chapter One describe the impact of neoliberalism, but the ethics of neoliberalism are not explored even in those works that are most closely concerned with it. Rand's ethics is one of ethical egoism – being for the other is replaced by being for the self. I will draw in part from her work The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism (1964) to explore how objectivism represents nearly an exact opposite of postmodern ethics, and thus represents a convenient antidote to its problems. I suggest that the rise of neoliberalism must be accompanied by a rise in neoliberal ethics, and the close readings I present in later chapters seem to bear this out. The next ethical paradigm I explore is a pragmatist concept of a “higher power.” Here, I draw primarily from William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), which introduces the idea of a non-denominational, self-imagined God-like spiritual force that provides ethical guidance. The sudden appearance of multiple high-profile novels exploring this terrain during a short period of time drew my attention to this paradigm. The idea of the higher power has been disseminated throughout American culture primarily by the self-help group Alcoholics Anonymous, which draws its intellectual content from James; yet, I've found numerous novels that directly reference James as well.