Welcome

Thoreau Studies and the Material Turn

            In recent years, ecocritical scholarship has witnessed what many are calling a “material turn,” a shift toward a consideration of matter, objects, and the posthuman. This turn has resulted in recognitions and theoretical investigations that have challenged some of the standard presumptions of ecocriticism and literary scholarship more generally: matter is agentic, objects have a distinct ontology, causality is mysterious, and the category of “the human” can no longer be taken for granted. New materialism, object-oriented ontology (OOO), and posthumanism depart from Cartesian science by treating matter as elusive, pluralist, open, interactive, unstable, and fragile.

            These developments have a distinctly contemporary orientation, stemming from its reaction to the postmodern “linguistic turn,” its emergence out of recent developments in the physical and social sciences, and its engagement with the various manifestations of ecological crisis. As such, there has been relatively little new materialist, OOO, or posthumanist scholarship addressing the writings of Henry David Thoreau, although this is changing quite rapidly. Responding to this shift and mindful of an opportunity to reconsider Thoreau, his work, and his milieu in new theoretical contexts, this seminar will address the current state of scholarship on Thoreau after the material turn and will examine where we might go next. Central questions: What does new materialism, OOO, and posthumanism offer Thoreau studies? What can Thoreau Studies contribute to these fields? Are there certain texts of Thoreau’s that especially lend themselves to this sort inquiry?

            Each participant will be asked to write a 750 word position paper approximately a month prior to the Annual Gathering. These statements will be posted to a blog (linked to the Thoreau Society website and the electronic program for the Gathering) for pre-conference review and discussion. The blog will contain links to recommended readings to facilitate audience participation. Participants will first deliver their position papers at the Gathering, then respond informally to comments generated by their original posting before opening the discussion to include audience members who will have had the chance to read the position papers and the recommended readings prior to the session.

            Position papers and responses will be published in either the Thoreau Society Bulletin or The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies.

If you plan on attending the roundtable and would like to access to the recommended readings in advance, please email james.finley [at] thoreausociety [dot] org with the subject line "Annual Gathering Roundtable."

Recommended Readings

Barad, Karen. “Posthumanist Performativity: Toward and Understanding of how Matter Comes to Matter.” Material Feminisms. Eds. Stacy Alaimo and Susan Hekman. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2008. 120-154.

Bennett, Jane. Preface. Thoreau’s Nature: Ethics, Politics, and the Wild. New ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. xxv-xxxii.

---. “Systems and Things: A Response to Graham Harman and Timothy Morton.” New Literary History 43.2 (2012): 225–233.

---. “The Force of Things.” Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. 1-19.

Bogost, “Alien Phenomenology.” Alien Phenomenology, or What it’s Like to be a Thing. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 2012. 1-34.

Coole, Diana and Samantha Frost. “Introducing the New Materialisms.” New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Eds. Diana Coole and Samantha Frost. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. 1-43

Harman, Graham. “The Well-Wrought Broken Hammer: Object-Oriented Literary Criticism.” New Literary History 43. 2 (2012): 183–203.

Morton, Timothy. “An Object-Oriented Defense of Poetry.” New Literary History 43.2 (2012): 205–222.

Wolfe, Cary. “‘Animal Studies’: Disciplinarity, and the (Post)Humanities.” What is Posthumanism? Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 2013. 99-126.