Insurrection and Narrativity: The Vitality of Clothes in Great Expectations

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. In their coauthored New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics, Coole and Frost, while introducing New Materialisms, claim the “materiality” of things as “something more than ‘mere’ matter” and give it a definition that it is “an excess, force, vitality, relationality, or difference that renders matter active, self-creative, productive, unpredictable” (see p9).2. Jane Bennett defines the agentic force of things in Vibrant Matter as “vitality” by which she means “the capacity of things – edibles, commodities, storms, metals – not only to impede or block the will and designs of humans but also to act as quasi agents or forces with trajectories, propensities, or tendencies of their own” (viii).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by The Humanities and Social Program of the Ministry of Education of China named ‘On the Materiality of Things in Contemporary Chinese American Female Writers’ Novels’ [NO. 21YJC752010]; The Youth and Excellent Research Team Project of Beijing International Studies University [NO. 21110011006]; The Graduate Research Project of Beijing International Studies University [NO. 11122018069]; The Major Project of National Social Science Fund of China named ‘A Study of the Idea of Cultural Community in American Ethnic Literatures’ [NO. 21&ZD281].