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Quantum Posthumanism and the Writing of JM Coetzee

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Quantum Posthumanism and the Writing of JM Coetzee Durham E-Theses Becoming Nothing, Becoming Everything: Quantum Posthumanism and the Writing of J.M. Coetzee AL-HAMED, HAJER,SAUD How to cite: AL-HAMED, HAJER,SAUD (2017) Becoming Nothing, Becoming Everything: Quantum Posthumanism and the Writing of J.M. Coetzee, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12279/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract Drawing on both posthumanism and quantum theory, this thesis introduces what I am calling a framework of quantum posthumanism. Based on the epistemic and ontic aspects of entanglement, nonseparability, and becoming, and a reworking of ideas of agency and objectivity, the thesis embarks on an interdisciplinary (entangled) reading of J. M. Coetzee’s texts that seeks to move beyond the current historicist framing of his work. Utilising some of the key concepts and laws from various quantum interpretations, it seeks to show how such concepts effectively deconstruct boundaries between self/other, human/animal, animate/inanimate, body/environment and therefore, by extension to the literary, between fact/fiction, story/history, external/internal, and ultimately author/character/reader/text. The thesis approaches Coetzee’s writing by focussing on the centrality in his fiction of becoming, not only on the level of characters, but also in terms of the agencies of meaning within the literary event (the transactions amongst reader, author, and text). Quantum posthumanism deconstructs the fixed role and positionality of the external observer/Cartesian subject, represented as the reader/author outside the literary event. It proposes the term phenomenon of meaning to address the entanglement of reader/text/author that become part of the meaning they claim to own. The thesis also challenges traditional uses of concepts such as time, linearity, and origin with quantum posthumanist ideas such as multiplicity, emergence, contingency, and parallelism. Finally, through the framework of quantum posthumanism, the thesis hopes to support the argument for the entanglement of human knowledge and the detrimental illusion of the divide between the humanities and the sciences by demonstrating and exemplifying how inevitably entangled human knowledge is. Becoming Nothing, Becoming Everything: Quantum Posthumanism and the Writing of J.M. Coetzee Hajer Saud Al Hamed Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies Durham University 2017 i TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations iii List of Abbreviations iv Copyright Statement v Acknowledgements vi Dedication vii Epigraph viii CHAPTER ONE—Introduction 9 1.1. On Critical Posthumanism 12 1.1.1. Humanism and Posthumanism 12 1.1.2. Critical Posthumanism Versus Transhumanism 15 1.1.3. Antihumanism 18 1.1.4. Posthumanism 25 1.1.5. A Critique of Posthumanism 34 1.2. Quantum Posthumanism 38 1.2.1. Classical Physics 38 1.2.2. Quantum Mechanics 40 1.2.3. The Philosophy of Physics 43 1.2.4. Quantum Posthumanism 49 1.3. Towards Post/humanities 56 1.4. Stories Beyond History: An Ahistorical Approach to Coetzee’s Fiction 63 CHAPTER TWO—I am Nothing Therefore I am Everything: The Crisis of ‘Being’ and the Longing for ‘Becoming’ in Coetzee’s Fiction 68 2.1. The First Paradigm: Humanist Characters 70 2.1.1. Becoming 85 2.1.2. The True Nature of Becoming 90 2.2. The Second Paradigm: Posthumanist Characters 97 2.2.1. Liminality and Nomadism 102 ii 2.2.2. Silence and Language 110 2.2.3. Embodiment and Becoming 116 2.3. Thoughts on Becoming (-with)-Animal and Becoming-Human 123 2.3.1 Becoming(-with)-Animal 123 2.3.2. Becoming-Human: The Case of Red Peter 124 2.4. Becoming-Writing/Reading: Coetzee and the Reader 131 CHAPTER THREE—Inside Out: Things, Objects, and Extended Becoming in Coetzee’s Slow Man 141 3.1. Objects and Agency 142 3.2. Extended Becoming 146 3.2.1. Extended Becoming 147 3.2.2. Reversing the Relation 156 3.3. On Things 158 3.3.1 The Thingness of Things 158 3.3.2. The Strangeness of Things 161 3.3.3. The Materiality of Thought 165 CHAPTER FOUR—Tracing Robinson Cruso(e): A Quantum Posthumanist ‘Adventure’ in Consciousness and Narrative in Coetzee’s Foe 168 4.1. Robinson Crusoe 169 4.2. Foe 178 4.3. The Notion of Time 182 4.4. Between Fact and Fiction 186 4.5. Chapter IV and the Reader 196 4.6. RC, Foe, and the Dilemma of Representation 200 Conclusion—Suppressing the Blind Spot: Contemplating the Worlds of Science and Fiction 203 5.1. The Similar Worlds of Science and Fiction 206 5.2. The Realist/Antirealist Debate 214 Works Cited 218 iii List of Illustrations CHAPTER TWO Table 1: A comparison between Coetzee’s humanist and posthumanist figures 122 Figure 1: Drawing Hands (Escher) 135 CHAPTER THREE Figure 2: The Differences Between Objects and Things (Magnusson) 165 CHAPTER FOUR Figure 3: Publications of RC in English 1720–1979 (Free) 173 CONCLUSION Figure 4: Blind Spot Experiment (Maturana & Varela) 204 Figure 5: Knowing How We Know (Maturana & Varela) 211 iv List of Abbreviations CI Copenhagen interpretation EB Extended becoming EC Extended cognition EPR paradox The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox MWI Many-worlds interpretation QP Quantum posthumanism QPist Quantum Posthumanist QPN Quantum posthumanist narrative RC The Robinson Crusoe Trilogy RC 1 The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe RC 2 The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe RC 3 Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe v The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent, and information derived from it should be acknowledged. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to King Faisal University (KFU) and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau (SACB) for funding my studies. I am honoured and privileged to have had the chance to work with my supervisor, Professor Patricia Waugh, to whom I am deeply grateful, and whose profound knowledge and expertise combined with her humbleness, kindness, and extraordinary cooperation made this journey not only productive but also pleasurable. When I told Professor Waugh about my ‘emerging’ interest in quantum mechanics, she was incredibly supportive and her suggestions were highly insightful. Without her support and encouragement, I would not have had the courage to experiment with many ideas to the extent that I have had. Special thanks go to my mother, Asma, and father, Saud, for their unfailing support of my academic career throughout the years; without their moral and financial assistance, I would have never been the person I am today. I am indebted to my husband, Mohammed, for his love, support, and patience throughout this journey. I would like to thank my son, Meshal, who is amazingly supportive, understanding, and patient for a six- year-old. I would also like to thank my youngest, Lama, who was born on 18/7/2015, and became undoubtedly ‘entangled’ with this thesis in so many ways. vii For Meshal and Lama. viii ‘When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images.’ -Attributed to Niels Bohr (1885-1962) 9 CHAPTER ONE Introduction This chapter sets the theoretical ground for introducing quantum posthumanism, a development and systematisation of some tendencies in the current discourses around critical posthumanism. In the first part of this chapter, ‘On Critical Posthumanism’, I review the cultural traditions that gave rise to critical posthumanism. Although the mode of linear conceptual and historical overview might seem counterintuitive to the philosophy of entanglement that is definitive of what I am calling quantum posthumanism, there is a need to begin with an outline of the historical and cultural aspects of the rise of critical posthumanism before establishing the terms of quantum posthumanism. This introduction will begin by briefly (and inevitably partially) addressing related terms such as humanism, antihumanism, transhumanism, and the different strands of posthumanism. Throughout the mapping of these terms, the aim is to reach a sufficiently clear theoretical framework for critical posthumanism, and to raise the question whether or not posthumanism might be a viable direction for theoretical work in the humanities. ‘Quantum Posthumanism’ constitutes the second and core part of this chapter. Merging notions of critical posthumanism and quantum theory, I introduce the hybrid term quantum posthumanism [QP], the framework I will use in the hermeneutic approach to Coetzee’s texts in subsequent chapters.1 Informed by the work of Karen Barad on philosophy and quantum theory in her book Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, this section sets the ground for a quantum posthumanist reading of Coetzee’s texts; it attempts to redefine key ideas around subjectivity, objectivity, and agency, while introducing others, including entanglement, emergence, observation, and phenomenon. In the third section of the chapter ‘Towards Post/humanities’, I briefly discuss the future of the humanities in a posthumanist world. I contend that quantum posthumanism can offer several solutions to help the humanities move towards, or rather realise, its 1 Coetzee’s texts selected for particular focus include Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Life and Times of Michael K (1983), Foe (1986), Age of Iron (1990), The Master of Petersburg (1994), Disgrace (1999), Elizabeth Costello (2003), and Slow Man (2005).
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