Inga Simpson’s The Last Woman in the World as a Transmodern Fiction of Attention

Arizti, Bárbara (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: This article studies The Last Woman in the World, Simpson’s apocalyptic novel set in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory shortly after the Black Summer and the coronavirus pandemic, as a transmodern fiction of attention. In Contemporary Fictions of Attention: Reading and Distraction in the Twenty-First Century, Alice Bennett looks into how literature is responding to the challenges to traditional forms of reading in the digital era by probing new areas. She analyses a growing corpus of international fiction that has attention, in its many forms, as its centrepiece. Bennett’s research, in combination with the theory of transmodernity, will serve to narrow down the focus to what I call “transmodern fictions of attention,” with Simpson’s cautionary tale as clearly representative. The essay argues that transmodernity constitutes the first light of a paradigm change that emphasises the vulnerability and radical interdependence of all forms of life, underlines the importance of the everyday and the staples of being human—most evident in dire situations—and promotes a relational ethics of care and attention that transcends the Levinasian call to attend so as to encompass not merely humans but the environment as well. The analysis intends to reveal that these are not new insights. On the contrary, the novel illustrates the reassessment and revaluation of Indigenous thought worlds encouraged by the transmodern paradigm.

Idioma: Inglés

Año: 2023

Publicado en: Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia 14, 1 (2023), 29-40
ISSN: 2013-6897

Originalmente disponible en: Texto completo de la revista

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FSE/H03-23R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2021-124841NB-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

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