Storied Subjects: Posthuman Subjectivization Through Narrative in Post-1960 American Print and Televisual Narrative

Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English Spring 5-5-2012 Storied Subjects: Posthuman Subjectivization Through Narrative in Post-1960 American Print and Televisual Narrative Julie Hawk Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Hawk, Julie, "Storied Subjects: Posthuman Subjectivization Through Narrative in Post-1960 American Print and Televisual Narrative." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/82 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STORIED SUBJECTS: POSTHUMAN SUBJECTIVIZATION THROUGH NARRATIVE IN POST-1960 AMERICAN PRINT AND TELEVISUAL NARRATIVE by JULIE L. HAWK Under the Direction of Dr. Christopher Kocela ABSTRACT This dissertation theorizes the ramifications of new media forms of narrative on subjectivization by tracing the evolution of the observer through its permutations as second-order observer, witness, director, and narrative agent and demonstrating the various interacting processes involved in the recursive feedback loops between and among, self, world, and story. In this project, I explore novels by contemporary U.S. authors John Barth, Richard Powers, Don DeLillo, and David Foster Wallace, as well as two televisual texts, Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse. Drawing from several seemingly disparate theories, I situate my argument in the interstices of systems theory (Luhmann, Clarke), psychoanalysis (Lacan, Butler), media theory (Ellis, Fiske, Buonan- no), and posthuman theory (Hayles, Badmington), putting forth a theoretical lens I call posthuman narrative onto-epistemology. The study thus fits into overlapping critical conversations. The extended treatment of five contemporary American novels situates Storied Subjects in conversations surrounding postmodernism and posthumanism as well as conversations surrounding these particular authors. For example, in the first chapter, I argue that the John Barth‘s Giles Goat-Boy and Richard Powers‘s Galatea 2.2 incorporate the observer from systems theory into the narrative frame, catalyzing an ontological and epistemological shift. In the second chapter, I show the ways in which Don DeLillo‘s novels White Noise and Underworld demonstrate what John Ellis calls the ―witness‖ ontology as well as the evolution of that ontology into what I call the ―director‖ in David Foster Wallace‘s Infinite Jest. In addition, the chapter devoted to televisual texts intervenes in an important, though often marginalized, conversation surrounding the importance of situating televisual narratives in dialogue with print fiction, arguing that we must attend to TV texts if we are to understand the texture of contemporary print fiction, which is saturated with the language of TV. In the final chapter, I explore the development of the ―narrative agent‖ ontology, examining both form and content of the televisual texts Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse in order to argue that, once second-order observation reaches a prolonged critical awareness, the observer‘s observation runs alongside her or his ability to intervene in the narrative, which al- lows for changing the story itself. INDEX WORDS: Posthuman, Subjectivization, Narrative, Ontology, Epistemology, Observa- tion, Systems theory, Second-Order Observation STORIED SUBJECTS: POSTHUMAN SUBJECTIVIZATION THROUGH NARRATIVE IN POST-1960 AMERICAN PRINT AND TELEVISUAL NARRATIVE by JULIE L. HAWK A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 Copyright by Julie Lollar Hawk 2012 STORIED SUBJECTS: POSTHUMAN SUBJECTIVIZATION THROUGH NARRATIVE IN POST-1960 AMERICAN PRINT AND TELEVISUAL NARRATIVE by JULIE L. HAWK Committee Chair: Dr. Christopher Kocela Committee: Dr. Martha Singer Dr. Nancy Chase Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2012 iv DEDICATION For my mom v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing is a kind of hard work that requires a strong support system, and I‘ve been very lucky in that regard. From friends to colleagues to family to four-legged companions to readers of my work, my support system pretty much rocks. First, I would like to thank all my committee mem- bers, Marti Singer, Nancy Chase, and especially Chris Kocela. Their careful reading and though- tful commentary were essential to forming my argument. In addition, the product of my thinking as represented here is a result of many factors, including a foundation of conversational relation- ships with my colleagues. I cannot name them all, but special gratitude to Vickie Willis, Juliette Kitchens, Casey McCormick, Jim Shimkus, Rahna Carusi, Tony Carusi, Shannon Finck, Amber Estlund, and Danielle Weber for their contributions to the intersecting conversational environ- ments that helped shape my thinking. Most importantly, I would like to thank my family and friends for putting up with me through this process; it couldn‘t have been easy. Thanks in particular to my mom, dad and siblings, as well as my extended family, for being so supportive and understanding when I had to work through family gatherings. Thanks also to Vickie Willis for always being there to listen to my rants and to Juliette Kitchens for the symbiotic and enriching working vibe we manage to maintain. I cannot state emphatically enough how grateful I am to Damon Hawk for his endless support and love, not to mention making it all worth it. Finally, a warm and fuzzy thanks to all my four-legged friends, especially Malion, Katchoo, Yorick, and Kaya, all of whom gave me exactly the unconditional love and support I needed to get to the finish line. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 2 Primary Texts .............................................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER ONE: INSCRIBED OBSERVATION: THE RE-ENTRY OF THE SECOND-ORDER OBSERVER IN JOHN BARTH’S GILES GOAT-BOY AND RICHARD POWERS’S GALATEA 2.2 ........................................................................ 33 John Barth ................................................................................................................... 40 Richard Powers ................................................................ 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CHAPTER TWO: THE OBSERVER EVOLVES: FROM “WITNESS” TO “DIRECTOR” IN THE WORK OF DON DELILLO AND DAVID FOSTER WALLACE ...................................................................................................................... 84 Don DeLillo .................................................................................................................. 95 David Foster Wallace ................................................................................................ 113 CHAPTER THREE: CHANGING THE STORY: NARRATIVE AGENCY IN RON MOORE'S BATTLESTAR GALACTICA AND JOSS WHEDON'S DOLLHOUSE Battlestar Galactica ................................................................................................... 139 Dollhouse……………………………………………………………………………153 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 188 WORKS CITED................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 1 INTRODUCTION This dissertation seeks to explore the ways in which narrative functions in a posthuman subjectivization process. An exploration such as this necessitates a methodology that unites several seemingly disparate theoretical frameworks—namely posthumanism (particularly as influ- enced by systems theory), narrative theories, and theories of the subject. I will call this lens ―narrative onto-epistemology.‖ I examine several post-1960 American fictional narrative texts (broadly defined) with the goal of identifying and explicating the role(s) that narrative plays in posthuman subject formation. I focus on subjectivization rather than subjectivity because the movement—the dynamic change—indeed the feedback loop between self and world—ontology and epistemology—is, I argue, the locus of the posthuman. The primary texts under examination all at the very least suggest a posthuman world—a world in which, to borrow a phrase from N. Katherine Hayles, we have already become posthuman (How We Became xiv). In examining these texts, I hope to highlight the ways in which narrative structures consciousness, particularly posthuman consciousness. I look not only to print fiction, but also to televisual narrative, in order to argue that part of what makes our world posthuman is the interaction among (always becoming) subjects, narrative, and the evolving technol- ogies through which narrative is delivered. Milly Buonanno reminds us that televisual narrative is important because ―[n]o other

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