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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE The UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE The Damned of the Anthropocene: Performatively Modeling Energy Aesthetics for a New Structuralism A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Sean Singh Matharoo June 2020 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Sherryl Vint, Chairperson Dr. Michelle Bloom Dr. Heidi Brevik-Zender Dr. Jeff Sacks Copyright by Sean Singh Matharoo 2020 The Dissertation of Sean Singh Matharoo is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements I want to acknowledge the institutional support for this study, from the Department of English at the University of Florida; the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages, the Department of English, former Graduate Division Dean Joseph W. Childers, the Ernest L. Propes Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund, and the Graduate Division at the University of California, Riverside; the Middlebury Language School Betty Ashbury Jones MA ’86 School of French; the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSA); the National Science Foundation (NSF); the Modern Language Association (MLA); the Fulbright U. S. Student Program; the Department of Literary Studies at Ghent University; the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS); and, the New Centre for Research & Practice. I also want to acknowledge that an earlier version of Chapter 2 in this study appeared as “A fata morgana at the end of the world, or towards the eco-racial disaster of J. G. Ballard’s The Drowned World.” J. G. Ballard and the Natural World, special issue of Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, vol. 22, no. 4, 2018, pp. 366-380. Parts of Chapter 4 in this study appeared in “Ubik Does Not yet Exist: Reading Philip K. Dick’s Ubik as a Case of Extro-Science Fiction.” Philip K. Dick: Essays of the Here and Now, edited by David Sandner, McFarland, 2020, pp. 61-70. And parts of Chapter 6 in this study appeared in Review of Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction, by Quentin Meillassoux. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 27, no. 2, 2017, pp. 345-348. iv Now, there are so many people to thank for so many reasons. I’m sorry if I missed you, but, as Kevin Barnes (or is it Judge Schreber, with sunbeams in his ass, a solar anus?) says: no matter where we are, we’re always touching by underground wires. I want to thank Sherryl Vint for energizing me to think and be ethically and to reclaim my love for science fiction. I want to thank Michelle Bloom for energizing me to think and be stylistically and to return to my love for comics. I want to thank Heidi Brevik-Zender for energizing me to think and be effusively and to reimagine my love for French. I want to thank Jeff Sacks for energizing me to think and be slowly and to remember my love for poetry. More generally, I want to thank each of my generous thesis mentors for teaching me how to write rigorously without sacrificing my integrity. I will carry this invaluable gift forward. For their energizing guidance, I want to thank Alain Badiou, Craig Baldwin, Stephanie Boluk, Steven Bruhm, Gert Buelens, Christopher J. Caes, Matt Cardin, David Cecchetto, Vrinda Chidambaram, Eloise Coffey, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Erik Davis, Samuel R. Delany, Sabine Doran, Christine Duvergé, Johannes Endres, Elke Gilson, Lewis Gordon, Maggie Gover, Barry Keith Grant, Alice Green, Patrick Guédon, Greg Hamilton, Melissa Hargrove, Steven Harper, N. Katherine Hayles, Gladis Herrera- Berkowitz, Ted Hiebert, Veronica Hollinger, Nalo Hopkinson, JJ Jacobson, Lynda Jenkins, John Jennings, Kelly Y. Jeong, Benjamin King, Dragan Kujundzic, Bart Keunen, Thomas Knowles, Rob Latham, John Leavey, Jacques Lezra, Perry Link, Margherita Long, David Lloyd, Tom Lutz, Hendrik Maier, Adam McTighe, Hassan Melehy, Joe Melito, Eric Milenkiewicz, Fred Moten, Timothy S. Murphy, Reza Negarestani, Frédéric v Neyrat, Scott Nygren, Marcel O’Gorman, Jennifer Ramos, Wendy Raschke, Melanie Ramiro, Lisa Raphals, Robert Ray, John Rieder, Benjamin J. Robertson, Cécile Roudeau, Peter L. Rudnytsky, David Sandner, Thomas F. Scanlon, Pierre Schoentjes, Aaron Schuster, Joshua Schuster, Peter Schwenger, Steven Shaviro, Rebekah Sheldon, Emma Stapely, Thomas Tajo, James Tobias, Alberto Toscano, Jeff VanderMeer, Isabella van Elferen, Gertrudis Van de Vijver, Sara Wasson, Eva Wattolik, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Ellen Welch, Yenna Wu, and Ida Yoshinaga. I also want to give special thanks to my mentors: to Marco Caracciolo for energizing me to think and be scientifically; to Stef Craps for energizing me to think and be graciously; to Paweł Frelik for energizing me to think and be joyously; to Terry Harpold for energizing me to think and be nonorientably; to Eleanor Kaufman for energizing me to disinter my occulted love for structuralism; to John Namjun Kim for energizing me to think and be tropologically; to Laurent Mazliak for energizing me to think and be mathematically; to Dana Simmons for energizing me to think and be collaboratively; to Jon Solomon for energizing me to think and be diagonally; to Allan Stoekl for energizing me to think and be generously; and, to Kelle Truby for energizing me to think and be formalistically. And to my late mentor Donald Ault: thank you for energizing me to sound like an alien. For the energizing conversations we have shared, I want to thank Liisa Ahlava, Aviya Amir, Erika Eda Anderson, Daniel Ante-Contreras, Erik Atkinson, Stina Attebery, Eglantine Aviez, Barret Avner, Nina Baek, Husni Syed Abu Bakar, Ashley Banoub, Ashleigh Beasley, Julie Birkholz, Mark Biswas, Melanie Boehi, Nicole Bogner, Maïa Broudic, Holly Brown, Leah Budke, Jędrek Burszta, Miranda Butler, J.-P. Caron, Gulin vi Cetin, Gammachiis T. Chali, Koenraad Claes, Yuri Cowan, Ezekiel Crago, Úrsula San Cristóbal, Iliana Cuellar, Alba Curry, Charlotte D’Eer, Yolan Devriendt, Stijn Dickel, Kira Dralle, Colin Drumm, Evan Duncan, Trina Elerts, Florian Endres, Jeshua Enriquez, Andrea Fenice, Leslie Fernandez, Seth Forrest, Stephanie Fousek, Heather Gabel, Gurleen Gala, Justin Gautreau, Ryan Gavan, Jared Gee, Michael Gira, Jaymee Goh, Katherine Guillen, Graham Hall, Cherie Hamilton, Ryan Harte, Hunter Hunt Hendrix, Emanuel Herold, Cheryl Hicks, Jeff Hicks, Maja Höhn, Richard Hunt, Utitofon Inyang, Geneva Jacuzzi, Lisa Brown Jaloza, Ayla Joncheere, Frederique Jonker, Marziyeh Kameli, Kirsten Kane, Leen Kawas, Tine Kempenaers, Farnoosh Khodadadeh, Andy King, Cara Kirby, Vera Knútsdóttir, Pelin Kumbet, Malisa Kurtz, Mattias Laga, Shannon Lambert, Annelies Lantsoght, Joseph Leavenworth, Eun-joo Lee, Soonyoung Lee, Timothy Lithgow, Mingming Liu, Susannah Livingston, Hannah Manshel, Reuben Martens, River Martin, John Maus, Seabrook Mendoza, Mahlu Mertens, Walter Merryman, Bolu Mira, Emma Monroy, Tyler Morris, Murdercakes, Ela Nagaj, Oum Nia, Duluo Nie, Bret Noble, Calix O’Hara, Aran Park, Josh Pearson, Najah Pena, Jasna Perin, Ariel Pink, Shabnam Piryaei, Nick Pondozzi, Lindsay Rabon, H.K. Rannversson, Courtney Reynolds, Franka Rissmann, Roberto Rivera, Angie Roberts, Dave Roberts, Cassie Roose, Hava Rosenberg, Seher Rowther, Daniel Sacilotto, Kameron Sanzo, Wyatt Sarafin, Aliya Say, Melissa Saywell, Lindsay Schaffer, Jasper Schelstraete, Matthew Scully, Arthur Seefahrt, Lorenzo Servitje, Eva Simčić, Brian Stephens, Amanda Styron, Emre Sünter, Samir Taha, Saina Tarverdy, Jouni Teittinen, Vonnie Tessier, John Tran, Léoppoldine Trepper, Edward Troy, Óscar Ulloa, Gry Ulstein, Daniel Valencia, Oscar vii Valle, Mathias Vander Hoogerstraete, Sveta Verbitskaya, Sara Van Cleemputte, Tijl Van de Casteele, Cedric Van Dijck, Juna Winston, Mark Young, and, of course, the righteous crews at Book Lover’s Café, Coffee Culture, Treasure Island Foods, and Den Drummer. I also want to give special thanks to my dear friend and colleague Conor Harris for energizing me to return to totality and infinity, to the sun eternally. Many thanks and much love to Gordon, Halo, and Osyn for their soft and warm companionship. Many thanks and much love to the Core: Jared Affleck (amahurste), Taylor Affleck (wh1t3_h34t), Tommy Christiansen (h3rcules), Casey Eiler (H3LMZ), Cameron Hansen (Dr Zweedse Vissen), Collin Jordan (Ponyburgers), and Andrew Keating (TheSteve). I also want to give special thanks to Andrew Jordan (Zebratrain) for showing me time and again what friendship can really be. Many thanks and much love to my aunt Harmanjeet Singh, my uncle Charandeep Singh, and my cousins Amandeep Singh (Sunny) and Jaydeep Singh (Lucky) for welcoming me as family. I also want to give special thanks to my uncle Jugsharan Singh Virdi for inspiring me. Many thanks and eternal love to my partner Brittany R. Roberts, without whom this thesis could not have been written. I look forward to reencountering the world with you from the perspective of difference, to make new worlds. Many thanks and much love to my brother Paul Singh Matharoo for teaching me to be strong and to my brother Neil Singh Matharoo for giving me the gift of noise. Finally, thank you, mom and dad, for everything you’ve ever done for me. viii Dedication I dedicate this study to my mom, who passed away during its conceptualization. ix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Damned of the Anthropocene: Performatively Modeling Energy Aesthetics for a New Structuralism by Sean Singh Matharoo Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside, June 2020 Dr. Sherryl Vint, Chairperson This study is about speculative aesthetics and philosophy. To speculate is to think
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