Subjects of substance : recent American literature and the materiality of mind

Recent U.S. literature has both been informed by, and critically engaged with, materialist conceptions of selfhood. Over the past decades, disciplines like neuroscience and evolutionary biology have increasingly recast the human self as a malleable construct produced by physiological processes. In a parallel development, literary authors have created their own conceptions of somatic subjectivity in conjunction or contrast with scientific and medical discourses. Subjects of Substance examines the forms, functions, and effects of materialist models of mind in selected memoirs and novels. Authors discussed include Michael W. Clune, Don DeLillo, Kay Redfield Jamison, Siri Hustvedt, Richard Powers, Elyn R. Saks, and David Foster Wallace. Cover Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Materialist Minds Minding Matter A New Naturalism? Marco Roth’s “The Rise of the Neuronovel” A Critique of Roth’s Critique Materialist Minds in Literature: Other Accounts Research Assumptions and Questions Thesis Structure and Method 2. Key Terms and Concepts Minds, Selves, and Subjects The Unconscious Habit and Plasticity New Materialism Agency, Autonomy, and Automaticity Matter/Materiality Neo-Naturalism 3. “My wayward brain”: Cerebral Subjectivity and Narrative Identity in the Neuro-Memoir What (or When) is the Neuro-Memoir? The Cerebral Subject The Cerebral Subject and the Neurochemical Self The Cerebral Subject and the Sufficiently Separate Self The Narrative or Autobiographical Self The Narrative Self in Paul Ricoeur The Narrative Self in Materialist Theories of Consciousness Materialist Theories of Consciousness in Theories of the Narrative Self A Hypothesis Kay Redfield Jamison and Elyn R. Saks: Revising Subjectivity Jamison and Saks: Control Siri Hustvedt and Allen Shawn: Integrating Mind and Matter Marc Lewis and Michael W. Clune: Addiction and Agency Marc Lewis: Learning, Inside and Out Michael Clune: The Futility of attempting to Forget the Self Chapter Conclusion: Integration and Control 4. “Just some kind of nerve impulse in the brain”: Substances and Subjects in the Novels of Don DeLillo Characters and Subjects End Zone Great Jones Street Ratner’s Star White Noise Chapter Conclusion: “The old human muddles and quirks” 5. Between Agency and Automatism: David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest An Informing Fear Wallace Scholarship and the Therapeutic Paradigm “A machine in the ghost”: Hal Incandenza “Now they’ve got you, and you’re free”: Don Gately Chapter Conclusion: “Configured for a recursive loop” 6. Neural Narrative: Richard Powers’s Galatea 2.2 and The Echo Maker Contemporary Contexts of Consciousness “An owner’s manual for the brain”: Galatea 2.2 “The brain is the ultimate storytelling machine”: The Echo Maker Chapter Conclusion: The Apotheosis of Narrative Conclusion Summary and Findings Motifs and Tropes Renewal and Revision I: Conceptions of Subjectivity Renewal and Revision II: The Representation of Consciousness and Character Renewal and Revision III: Formal Design and Metaphoricity Renewal and Revision IV: The Relevance and Social Function of Literature Works Cited Recent U.S. literature has both been informed by, and critically engaged with, materialist conceptions of selfhood. Over the past decades, disciplines like neuroscience and evolutionary biology have increasingly recast the human self as a malleable construct produced by physiological processes. In a parallel development, literary authors have created their own conceptions of somatic subjectivity in conjunction or contrast with scientific and medical discourses. Subjects of Substance examines the forms, functions, and effects of materialist models of mind in selected memoirs and novels. Authors discussed include Michael W. Clune, Don DeLillo, Kay Redfield Jamison, Siri Hustvedt, Richard Powers, Elyn R. Saks, and David Foster Wallace. 20th-Century American Literature,Neuroscience,Self,Brain,Materialism,Literature,America,Human,American Studies,General Literature Studies,Body,Philosophical Anthropology,Literary Studies Long description: Subjects of Substance traces the ways in which materialist conceptions of selfhood inspire and shape recent U.S. literature. While disciplines like neuroscience and evolutionary biology transform the human self from an immaterial essence into a material construct, authors likewise develop conceptions of somatic subjectivity in conjunction and in contrast with scientific and medical discourses. The present study examines the forms, functions, and effects of materialist models of mind in a number of memoirs and novels. Authors discussed include Michael Clune, Don DeLillo, Kay Redfield Jamison, Siri Hustvedt, Richard Powers, Elyn R. Saks, and David Foster Wallace Biographical note: Julian Henneberg, born in 1981, earned his doctorate from the Graduate School of North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin