The Subject of Minimalism : On Aesthetics, Agency, and Becoming

Utilizing a wide range of theoretical and creative texts, Phillips offers an examination of subjectivity as considered, enacted, and embodied, through the frame of minimalist aesthetics. Provocatively, he makes the claim that lived experience is capable of being refined according to the paradoxically rich parameters of a minimalist aesthetic. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-12 Stirrings of Discontent: A Theoretical Context....Pages 13-32 Becoming Fiction: Sarraute, Stein, Hemingway....Pages 33-55 Carver, Sarraute, Toussaint....Pages 57-71 Echenoz, Fabre, DeLillo....Pages 73-92 Lights Camera Action: Becoming against the Screen....Pages 93-112 “Mark the Music”: Microsound and Becoming-Silence....Pages 113-129 The Masochistic Body....Pages 131-140 The “Somaesthetic” Turn: Becoming-Minimal....Pages 141-164 On Virtue, Verbs, and the Virtual....Pages 165-178 Conclusion and Postscript: On Being Able....Pages 179-182 Back Matter....Pages 183-201 "The Subject of Minimalism" advocates for minimalism as an approach to daily life. Utilizing a wide range of theoretical and creative texts, Thomas Phillips offers an examination of subjectivity as considered, enacted, and embodied. Provocatively, he makes the claim that lived experience is capable of being refined according to the paradoxically rich parameters of a minimalist aesthetic. What is finally at stake for one who engages with certain texts, the book argues, is a selfhood that may become at once 'minimized' and advanced in the psychology and materiality of its everyday life Stirrings of discontent: a theoretical context -- Becoming fiction: Sarraute, Stein, Hemingway -- Carver, Sarraute, Toussaint -- Echenoz, Fabre, DeLillo -- Lights camera action: becoming against the screen -- Mark the music: microsound and becoming-silence -- The masochistic body -- The somaesthetic turn: becoming-minimal -- On virtue, verbs, and the virtual -- Conclusion and post script: On being able