Open AccessPosthumanist Trauma: An Intrasectional Approach to Accountable Determinacy in Current North American Narrative
Author(s) -
Miriam Fernández-Santiago
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of english studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.115
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1695-4300
pISSN - 1576-6357
DOI - 10.18172/jes.4370
Subject(s) - determinacy , posthuman , narrative , action (physics) , humanism , psychoanalysis , embodied cognition , aesthetics , literature , history , sociology , psychology , epistemology , art , philosophy , political science , law , mathematical analysis , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
How can we deal with trauma in a posthuman world? The 9th of September 2001 will be remembered as the day the world changed. The turn of the century in the Western world was signaled by this national trauma, but also by a change in the humanist paradigm that very much conditioned the way in which such trauma was experienced and represented. This article explores this intrasection in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Art Spiegelman as they struggle to account for 9/11 through two trauma narratives that signal a matching change in aesthetic approach. Its methodological innovation lies in the application of Karen Barad’s concept of “intra-action” to the humanities.