Cohn argues that the animal lives of contemporary fiction move beyond allegories of globalization's fracture of subjectivity by emphasizing the creaturely dimensions of narrative. This shift in focus registers through recent fiction's fascination with milieus: environments made perceptible through sentience that humans share with other creatures. Showing how theories of milieu—from Jacob von Uexküll, George Canguilhem, and Sylvia Wynter to recent studies in comparative cognition—converge with and are conceptually indebted to Indigenous and Black ontologies, Cohn argues that the milieu not only explains the centrality of animals to contemporary fiction, but also promotes dialogue across disciplines invested in anti-hierarchic accounts of embodied life. Each chapter foregrounds formal resonances in texts from the mid-1990s through the present, including work by Téa Obreht, Yoko Tawada, NoViolet Bulawayo, Sigrid Nunez, Jesmyn Ward, Linda Hogan, Lucy Ellmann, Amitav Ghosh, and Aminatta Forna. Throughout, Cohn compellingly argues for the centrality of narrative voice in avoiding, deferring, or complicating modes of figuration and critical interpretation that confirm human privilege.
Cohn argues that the animal lives of contemporary fiction move beyond allegories of globalization's fracture of subjectivity by emphasizing the creaturely dimensions of narrative. This shift in focus registers through recent fiction's fascination with milieus: environments made perceptible through sentience that humans share with other creatures. Showing how theories of milieu—from Jacob von Uexküll, George Canguilhem, and Sylvia Wynter to recent studies in comparative cognition—converge with and are conceptually indebted to Indigenous and Black ontologies, Cohn argues that the milieu not only explains the centrality of animals to contemporary fiction, but also promotes dialogue across disciplines invested in anti-hierarchic accounts of embodied life. Each chapter foregrounds formal resonances in texts from the mid-1990s through the present, including work by Téa Obreht, Yoko Tawada, NoViolet Bulawayo, Sigrid Nunez, Jesmyn Ward, Linda Hogan, Lucy Ellmann, Amitav Ghosh, and Aminatta Forna. Throughout, Cohn compellingly argues for the centrality of narrative voice in avoiding, deferring, or complicating modes of figuration and critical interpretation that confirm human privilege.
Milieu: A Creaturely Theory of the Contemporary Novel
290
Milieu: A Creaturely Theory of the Contemporary Novel
290
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781503642379 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Publication date: | 04/15/2025 |
| Pages: | 290 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d) |