New Ecological Realisms - (Speculative Realism) by Monika Kaup (Paperback)

About the Book

Monika Kaup pairs post-apocalyptic novels by Margaret Atwood, José Saramago, Octavia Butler and Cormac McCarthy with new realist theories from Bruno Latour, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Markus Gabriel, Jean-Luc Marion and Alphonso Lingis.

Book Synopsis

Monika Kaup pairs post-apocalyptic novels by Margaret Atwood, José Saramago, Octavia Butler and Cormac McCarthy with new realist theories from Bruno Latour, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Markus Gabriel, Jean-Luc Marion and Alphonso Lingis.

From the Back Cover

Presents post-apocalyptic fiction as an important and unique source of new realist ontologies What is the singular reality of humanistic objects of study? By pairing post-apocalyptic novels by Margaret Atwood, José Saramago, Octavia Butler and Cormac McCarthy with new realist theories, Monika Kaup shows that, just as new realist theory can illuminate post-apocalyptic literature, post-apocalyptic literature also embeds new theories of the real. She showcases a context-based concept of the real, arguing that new realisms of complex and embedded wholes, actor-networks and ecologies, rather than old realisms of isolated parts and things, represent the most promising escape from the impasses of constructivism and positivism. To achieve this Kaup brings together four contemporary theories that have never been considered together before and that formulate context-based realisms: Bruno Latour's actor-network theory; Chilean neurophenomenologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela's theories of autopoiesis and enactivism; German philosopher Markus Gabriel's new ontology of fields of sense; French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology of givenness and American philosopher Alphonso Lingis's phenomenology of passionate identification. Monika Kaup is Professor of English at the University of Washington

Review Quotes

[...] a remarkable scholarly work that combines a firm grasp of theory with literary analysis.

--Kamil Rusilowicz, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin "Roczniki Humanistyczne Vol. 71, No. 11"

[...] Kaup's book is an original and instructive work, so much so as to be useful as an introduction to the intersections between various new realist theories, as well as a skilful demonstration of their applications for literary analysis.

--Antonia Spencer "The comparatist"

By introducing readers to a variety of provocative approaches to "new realism," and by showing how post-apocalyptic fictions not only enact but also deepen and broaden those theories, Monika Kaup provides an invaluable map of our precarious present that simultaneously offers hope for our collective future.

-- "Evan Gottlieb, Oregon State University"

I was thrilled by Kaup's stunning capacity clearly to express complexity as many times as I was baffled by the particular commitments of this tightly knit way of thinking the world, literature, and communication: both say much about me and I hope they also help to steer Kaup's best readers to this book. It may be just the kind of criticism they need at present.

--Brent Ryan Bellamy "Science Fiction Studies"

Monika Kaup's encyclopedic new study promises to be invaluable inasmuch as it organizes and reframes an impressive amount of scholarship from the past three decades of ecological thinking.

--Clint Wilson III "MLQ"

Presenting a context-dependent realism, Monika Kaup brings together theory and fiction to get real about ecology and the future. Philosophical inquiries and post-apocalyptic writings collide in engaging prose and exciting ideas that open up new horizons for thinking, feeling, and acting after the end of the world.

--Sam Mickey, University of San Francisco

[...] Kaup's book is a vivid prospect of what the genre may still achieve in the way of bringing to life forms of mind that are, as yet, only keenly felt anticipations of a shared mind to come.--Mark Payne "American Literary History"

About the Author

Monika Kaup is Professor of English at the University of Washington. She is the author of Neobaroque in the Americas: Alternative Modernities in Literature, Visual Art, and Film (University of Virginia Press 2012) and she is co-editor of Baroque New Worlds: Representation, Transculturation, Counterconquest (Duke University Press 2010).