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Keeping it Real: Literary Impersonality under Neoliberalism

Hartley, Daniel

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Authors



Contributors

Sharae Deckard
Editor

Stephen Shapiro
Editor

Abstract

This chapter argues that the impersonality of historical capitalism is best conceived as an uneven combination of socio-cultural processes of depersonalization and (re-)personalization. It is within this purview of the longue durée that I shall locate the specific configuration of impersonal and personal forces in the period known as ‘neoliberalism.’ I shall argue that neoliberalism constitutes a combined and uneven world-systemic project operating through multiple socio-cultural “personae” (from homo œconomicus to “wageless life” [Denning]), unified by a counter-revolutionary project of Restoration whose aim was to negate the “passion for the real” [la passion du réel] that characterized much of the twentieth century (Badiou). I shall use these extended sociological and philosophical elaborations as a framework within which to read two key contemporary works of world-literature: S. J. Naudé’s The Alphabet of Birds (2015) and Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers (2013). I interpret these works as attempts to inherit the “passion for the real” under conditions of neoliberalism. Both writers employ techniques of impersonality and depersonalization to carve out a fragile space of resistance and formalize hope in an ethico-political absolute. In doing so, they not only extend Badiou’s own reflections on the intrinsic limitations of the “passion for the real” (not least its intimate bond with violence and destruction) but also indicate potential blind spots in Badiou’s philosophical project itself.

Citation

Hartley, D. (2019). Keeping it Real: Literary Impersonality under Neoliberalism. In S. Deckard, & S. Shapiro (Eds.), World literature, neoliberalism and the culture of discontent (131-155). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05441-0_6

Online Publication Date Jan 31, 2019
Publication Date Jan 31, 2019
Deposit Date Oct 3, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Pages 131-155
Series Title New comparisons in world literature
Book Title World literature, neoliberalism and the culture of discontent.
ISBN 9783030054403
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05441-0_6

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Copyright Statement
Hartley, Daniel (2019). Keeping it Real: Literary Impersonality under Neoliberalism. In World Literature, Neoliberalism and the Culture of Discontent. Deckard, Sharae & Shapiro, Stephen Palgrave Macmillan. 131-155 reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05441-0_6




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