The posthuman trauma novel: Reconfiguring subjectivity in Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking about This (2021)

Baelo-Allué, Sonia (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Trauma studies and posthuman studies are two paradigms that became popular in the late twentieth century and have been used to define the culture of our time. Both fields deal with subjectivity, agency, embodiment and the relation with ‘the other’, viewing subjectivity and the self as shattered and fragmented. However, while trauma studies focuses on the process of acting out and working through to return to a sealed, complete conception of the self, posthuman studies explores the fluidity and interconnectedness that results from the decentralization of human subjectivity in our technological, boundary-blurring reality. This article introduces the concept of the posthuman trauma novel, which delves into the shared sense of vulnerability between trauma and posthumanism and the complex identity dynamics emerging from these paradigms. Formally, these novels favour complex timelines, non-linear narratives, interconnected plotlines, emotional detachment, machine-like narrators and thematic fragmentation, among other strategies. Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking about This (2021) is a representative example of the posthuman trauma novel that navigates virtual and real worlds. Through fragmentation, intrusive images and non-linearity, the novel represents the disintegration of the mind caused by the internet and social media in which the sense of self is engulfed by a collective consciousness emerging from the never-ending scrolling and the juxtapositions between the important and the shallow. It is a real-world trauma that pulls the protagonist out of the virtual world of disembodiment and detachment. While acknowledging the importance of social media and digital technologies, the novel also sees the blurring of digital and physical spaces as a wound of modern subjectivity, a suffering that needs to be worked through to achieve an embodied and embedded conceptualization of the self.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1386/ejac_00124_1

Año: 2024

Publicado en: European journal of American culture 43, 3 (2024), 219-238
ISSN: 1466-0407

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.152 - Cultural Studies (Q2) - History (Q2) - Anthropology (Q3)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FSE/H03-23R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2022-137627NB-I00

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Filología Inglesa (Dpto. Filolog.Inglesa y Alema.)