{"title":"花园中锈迹斑斑的机器:杰斯敏-沃德小说中的后人文主义场所感知","authors":"Christopher Howard","doi":"10.1353/mss.2024.a928863","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:In The Machine in the Garden (1964), Leo Marx set American studies on a search for \"a distinctively American theory of society\" (4). Demonstrating how an image of mechanistic modernity first occurred then recurred throughout cultural depictions of a predominantly rural landscape, Marx examines the impact of industrialization on American society. This essay argues that contemporary southern fiction is displaying a similarly recurring motif of its own, a motif representative of a new perception of place for the region. Place, according to the southern studies conception as a region of constancy capable of informing our identities, no longer exists. The posthumanist subject instead inhabits a shared space suitable for their symbiotic coexistence, and contemporary authors are starting to depict this element of posthuman existence. Marx's machines recur anew, their rusting carcasses re-purposed by the coexisting elements around them. Rather than a shocking intrusion into the rural landscape, the rusting shells of the symbols of modern society are representative of the non-exceptionalism of the posthuman. Using Jesmyn Ward's Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Sing, Unburied, Sing, this essay will consider how such imagery indicates a shift in the presentation of place in southern fiction.","PeriodicalId":35190,"journal":{"name":"MISSISSIPPI QUARTERLY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The Rusting Machine in the Garden: Posthumanist Perception of Place in the Novels of Jesmyn Ward\",\"authors\":\"Christopher Howard\",\"doi\":\"10.1353/mss.2024.a928863\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"ABSTRACT:In The Machine in the Garden (1964), Leo Marx set American studies on a search for \\\"a distinctively American theory of society\\\" (4). Demonstrating how an image of mechanistic modernity first occurred then recurred throughout cultural depictions of a predominantly rural landscape, Marx examines the impact of industrialization on American society. This essay argues that contemporary southern fiction is displaying a similarly recurring motif of its own, a motif representative of a new perception of place for the region. Place, according to the southern studies conception as a region of constancy capable of informing our identities, no longer exists. The posthumanist subject instead inhabits a shared space suitable for their symbiotic coexistence, and contemporary authors are starting to depict this element of posthuman existence. Marx's machines recur anew, their rusting carcasses re-purposed by the coexisting elements around them. Rather than a shocking intrusion into the rural landscape, the rusting shells of the symbols of modern society are representative of the non-exceptionalism of the posthuman. Using Jesmyn Ward's Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Sing, Unburied, Sing, this essay will consider how such imagery indicates a shift in the presentation of place in southern fiction.\",\"PeriodicalId\":35190,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"MISSISSIPPI QUARTERLY\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.1000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-06-04\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"MISSISSIPPI QUARTERLY\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1353/mss.2024.a928863\",\"RegionNum\":4,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"MISSISSIPPI QUARTERLY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mss.2024.a928863","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
摘要
摘要:在《花园中的机器》(1964 年)一书中,利奥-马克思(Leo Marx)将美国研究引向了寻找 "一种独特的美国社会理论"(4)。马克思在书中展示了机械化的现代性形象是如何在以乡村景观为主的文化描写中先是出现,然后又反复出现的,他探讨了工业化对美国社会的影响。本文认为,当代南方小说正在展示一种类似的反复出现的主题,这种主题代表了该地区对地方的新认识。根据南方研究的概念,"地方 "是一个能够为我们的身份提供信息的恒定区域,但它已不复存在。取而代之的是,后人类主义主体居住在一个适合他们共生共存的共享空间,当代作家开始描绘后人类生存的这一要素。马克思的机器再次出现,它们生锈的尸体被周围共存的元素重新利用。生锈的现代社会象征的躯壳并不是对乡村景观的冲击,而是代表了后人类的非例外主义。本文将通过杰斯敏-沃德的《血流成河的地方》(Where the Line Bleeds)、《打捞骸骨》(Salvage the Bones)和《歌唱吧,未埋葬的,歌唱吧》(Sing, Unburied, Sing),探讨这些意象如何表明南方小说在呈现地点方面的转变。
The Rusting Machine in the Garden: Posthumanist Perception of Place in the Novels of Jesmyn Ward
ABSTRACT:In The Machine in the Garden (1964), Leo Marx set American studies on a search for "a distinctively American theory of society" (4). Demonstrating how an image of mechanistic modernity first occurred then recurred throughout cultural depictions of a predominantly rural landscape, Marx examines the impact of industrialization on American society. This essay argues that contemporary southern fiction is displaying a similarly recurring motif of its own, a motif representative of a new perception of place for the region. Place, according to the southern studies conception as a region of constancy capable of informing our identities, no longer exists. The posthumanist subject instead inhabits a shared space suitable for their symbiotic coexistence, and contemporary authors are starting to depict this element of posthuman existence. Marx's machines recur anew, their rusting carcasses re-purposed by the coexisting elements around them. Rather than a shocking intrusion into the rural landscape, the rusting shells of the symbols of modern society are representative of the non-exceptionalism of the posthuman. Using Jesmyn Ward's Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Sing, Unburied, Sing, this essay will consider how such imagery indicates a shift in the presentation of place in southern fiction.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1948, the Mississippi Quarterly is a refereed, scholarly journal dedicated to the life and culture of the American South, past and present. The journal is published quarterly by the College of Arts and Sciences of Mississippi State University.