MULLINS, MATTHEW RYAN, Ph.D. Postmodern Materialism: Things, People, and the Remaking of the Social in Contemporary American Narrative. (2012) Directed by Dr. Christian Moraru. 260 pp. This dissertation reexamines the critical orthodoxies of postmodern American literature by attending to the everyday objects that populate the worlds of narrative texts written from the 1960s to the first decade of the new millennium. Whereas the majority of literary and cultural critics, from Fredric Jameson to Linda Hutcheon to K. Anthony Appiah, argue that postmodernism can be best understood in terms of a commitment to the demystification of social arrangements that seem natural, this project proposes that what makes literature postmodern is a dedication to the ongoing material construction of the social. Beginning with the most mundane items in works of fiction by Leslie Marmon Silko, Don DeLillo, John Barth, Toni Morrison, and others, “Postmodern Materialism” charts the complex interactions of vast arrays of subjects and objects in the assembly of social groups. The resulting inquiry offers two important benefits: 1) a new approach to postmodernism in general through a rereading of postmodern fiction; 2) a unique methodology for assessing the relationship between things and people that reveals the fluidity of, and thus the possibility for remaking, our social structures. By showcasing the simplest components of the social, the project of postmodernism can be seen, I maintain, as calling our attention not so much away from ourselves and our preoccupations as toward the material world that we all share. Such a shift in consideration does necessitate, however, a theoretical movement away from human essence as the gravitational center of our social relations, thus precluding an overly reductive comparison between people that more often than not results in the exclusion, alienation, or marginalization of individuals and groups based on actual or perceived differences. Along these lines, I conclude that postmodern fiction is especially well-suited for a critical remaking of the social because it is attuned to the ways in which the social is constantly being fashioned by the world of material objects. POSTMODERN MATERIALISM: THINGS, PEOPLE, AND THE REMAKING OF THE SOCIAL IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NARRATIVE by Matthew Ryan Mullins A Dissertation Submitted to The Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2012 Approved by _________________________________ Committee Chair © 2012 Matthew Ryan Mullins For Jenny. I love you the most. ii APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair _________________________________ Committee Members _________________________________ _________________________________ ____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee __________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this project would have been utterly impossible without the support of a host of friends, colleagues, mentors, and family. Thanks so much to my fellow graduate students at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro who have challenged, encouraged, and fellowshipped with me over the last five years. Your creativity and friendship have energized me time and again. Thanks also to the English Department administrative staff which has provided helpful moments of respite and comic relief during a long process: Melanie Humpal, Lydia Howard, and Anna Tysor. And nothing in this world would be possible without Alyson Everhart. Ceaseless thanks to my committee. My development as a writer, professional, and thinking person would have suffered greatly without the aid of Mark Rifkin and Steve Yarbrough, whose insight, motivation, and commitment help account for anything illuminating in the following chapters. A special thanks to my chair, Christian Moraru for unfailingly pushing and supporting me throughout all phases of my graduate education. This project owes its genesis and evolution to Christian’s desire and ability to inspire others to think deeply about literature and culture. Finally, I owe a profound debt of gratitude to my family: Jenny and Jai, the deepest loves of my life. Vince and Sandy, whose generosity has been unmovable. Pam, who’s become a friend and not just a sister. Mom, whose love and encouragement remind me to love others. Dad, the bravest and most daring person I know, your love is strong. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: POSTMODERNISM IS NOT POSTMATERIALISM ......................................................................................1 The Agency of Objects ..............................................................................10 The Social Is Not a Substance ...................................................................16 The Social In Process .................................................................................24 Notes ..........................................................................................................33 II. RECOLLECTING THE SOCIAL: FROM CRITIQUE TO CONSTRUCTION ....................................................................................37 No Ceremony Without Objects ..................................................................45 No Objects Without Stories .......................................................................64 Notes ..........................................................................................................82 III. NARRATING THE SOCIAL: FROM OTHERNESS TO INCLINATION .........................................................................................86 The Inclination of Actors ...........................................................................95 Locating the Stories In Things .................................................................114 Notes ........................................................................................................130 IV. WRITING THE SOCIAL: FROM POSTSTRUCTURALISM TO POSTMODERNISM ...............................................................................133 Words and Things ....................................................................................139 Things and People ....................................................................................162 Notes ........................................................................................................180 V. REMAKING THE SOCIAL: FROM HOW WE KNOW TO WHAT IS THERE ...................................................................................181 The Possibilities of What Is There ...........................................................189 The Unfulfilled Promise of How We Know ............................................206 Notes ........................................................................................................228 VI. CONCLUSION: AFTER ISMS, OR, THE PROMISE OF POSTMODERNISM .....................................................................................230 v Notes ........................................................................................................239 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................240 vi 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: POSTMODERNISM IS NOT POSTMATERIALISM In their academy-award winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman assemble a cinematic narrative that tests the boundaries of memory and consciousness. Protagonist Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) falls in love with the zany and mercurial Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), but the relationship eventually turns sour and Clementine undergoes a memory- erasing procedure to wipe Joel from her mind entirely. When Joel discovers that he has been erased, he decides to reciprocate and have Clementine erased from his memory. The doctor instructs Joel to go home and retrieve every object, memento, and keepsake of any kind that might remind him of his relationship with Clementine so that these items can be used to construct a map of Joel’s brain, which will enable the doctor and his technicians to locate the relevant memories of Clementine and delete them. Joel returns with art supplies, coffee mugs, potatoes he and Clementine had dressed as people, two garbage bags full of things. The technician situates Joel in a chair topped with a brain scanner that resembles a hair dryer at a salon, sets the first object down in front of him—a snow globe—and asks him to “react” to the object. Joel begins by explaining that there is a funny story that accompanies the snow globe, but the technician interrupts and says that he will actually get a better read out if Joel refrains from any verbal explanations of the thing and simply focuses on the memories. Speech, in this scenario, is unnecessary 2 because the objects alone are enough to generate the necessary brain activity to create the map. The objects are essential to Joel’s memories because they were central to the actions and events from which those memories were formed. Without the objects the initial events would not have happened and the memories themselves would not exist in the first place. Much like the snow globes, coffee mugs, and potatoes that shape and then ultimately become material manifestations