The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature

Analyses the theme of laziness in twentieth-century American Literature Uncovers the ethical dimension of the writing of Stein, Hemingway, Barth, Barthelme and Wallace by situating them in the context of the 20th century non-normative ethical and aesthetic tradition Shows how the Romantic interest in laziness plays out through the modernist and postmodernist moments in 20th century American literature Offers an innovative model of ethical reading based on the concept of unproductivity as an alternative to the dominant post-Romantic trends in the field of ethical criticism Presents the first comprehensive study of laziness as a theoretical concept, which draws on a range of religious and philosophical references points, spanning John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas, Theodor Adorno, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Catherine Malabou The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature focuses on the issue of productivity, using the figure of laziness to negotiate the relation between the ethical and the aesthetic. This book argues that major twentieth-century American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and David Foster Wallace provocatively challenge the ethos of productivity by filtering their ethical interventions through culturally stigmatised imagery of laziness. Ladyga argues that when the motif of laziness appears, it invariably reveals the underpinnings of an emerging value system at a given historical moment, while at the same time offering a glimpse into the strategies of rebelling against the status quo. The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 Preface 9 Introduction: Doing Nothing in America 18 PART I The Philosophical and Literary Contexts of Laziness 40 CHAPTER 1 Laziness as Concept-Metaphor 42 CHAPTER 2 Laziness in American Literature: The Inaugural Moment 89 PART II The Modernist Moment of Laziness 162 CHAPTER 3 Cessation and inaction externe: Gertrude Stein and Marcel Duchamp 164 CHAPTER 4 Laziness and Tactility in Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden 185 PART III The Postmodern Moment of Laziness 204 CHAPTER 5 Exhaustion of Possibilities: Harold Rosenberg, John Barth and Susan Sontag 206 CHAPTER 6 Inertia and Not-Knowing in the Fiction of Donald Barthelme 227 CHAPTER 7 Acedia and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King 258 Epilogue 284 Index 289 Focuses on the issue of productivity, using the figure of laziness to negotiate the relation between the ethical and the aesthetic. This book argues that major twentieth-century American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and David Foster Wallace provocatively challenge the ethos of productivity by filtering their ethical interventions through culturally stigmatized imagery of laziness. The author argues that when the motif of laziness appears, it invariably reveals the underpinnings of an emerging value system at a given historical moment, while at the same time offering a glimpse into the strategies of rebelling against the status quo