Disaffected: Emotion, Sedition, and Colonial Law in the Anglosphere. Search in Google ScholarĪgathocleous, Tanya. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”. Instead of ‘correcting’ the affective pendulum from a solipsistic apathy into a naïve happiness, Moshfegh’s novel ‘awakens’ her readers to a more complex and undetermined spectrum of affective structures.Īdorno, Theodor W. In this article I argue that Moshfegh’s novel complicates the apathetic protagonist’s naïve goal of re-affection – that is, her attempt to overcome apathy, find happiness and reintegrate into society – by embedding her emotional experiences within an overpowering affective economy that is constituted by media, capitalism, neoliberalism and other socio-political forces. One recent text that stages this complex dance between feeling and unfeeling is Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Literary texts that highlight apathy formally and thematically thus reflect on broader socio-political contexts of emotional withdrawal that was caused, for example, by labor fatigue, late capitalism and addiction, and pose a challenge to the affective status quo. As a few scholars from affect studies have recently argued, apathy can signal a “detachment from attachments to hegemonic structures of feeling” and holds “the potential for striving toward a radical politics of liberation” (Yao 2021: 17). S.-American literature that goes against intense feelings and instead highlights apathy, unfeeling and disaffection. GradeSaver, 2 August 2023 Web.There is an important countertradition in U. Next Section Metaphors and Similes Previous Section Analysis How To Cite in MLA Format Anonymous "My Year of Rest and Relaxation Symbols, Allegory and Motifs". Will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. You can help us out by revising, improving and updatingĪfter you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. She comments, “But I think I was also holding on to the loss, to the emptiness of the house itself, as though to affirm that it was better to be alone than to be stuck with people who were supposed to love you, yet couldn’t.” Update this section! ![]() The empty house emotionally resonates with the lack of love and connection that the narrator felt with her parents even while they were still alive. The narrator returns to visit her parents' empty house after their death. Narrator's parents' house as a symbol of narrator's relationship with her parents Ping Xi's art underscores the cruelty and lack of meaning that the narrator finds not only in the art world but in society overall. For another exhibit, he allegedly kills young dogs, taxidermies them, and installs lasers into their eyes. Ping Xi's paintings involve masturbating onto canvases, symbolizing that art is, literally, masturbatory. She describes in particular the work of artist Ping Xi. Ping Xi's art as a symbol of cruelty and lack of meaningĪt the beginning of the novel, the narrator works at an art gallery. The compulsion to use more of the drugs is very strong that it motivates her to endure the pain of going for them. That was always a painful passage.” The narrator absolutely depends on the drugs for they expedite her hibernation by making her sleepy. The narrator recounts, “When I needed more pills, I ventured out to the Rite Aid three blocks away. The narrator expends her day sleeping for long so as to be away from the ordinary day-to-day engagements. ![]() The sheets on my bed yellowed, although I usually fell asleep in front of the television on the sofa…I didn’t do much in my waking hours besides watch movies.” The hibernation project entails the inactivity of the body. The narrator elucidates, “I had started “hibernating” as best I could in mid-June of 2000…My muscles withered. ![]() Written by people who wish to remain anonymous We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
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