NeMLA 2020: New Materialist Readings of 19th-century Writers
This session engages in a matter-oriented approach, raising questions about the ontological status of the autonomous writing subject by joining it to the vast network of relations to objects within an area—ecozone, bioregion, biome, or ecosystem. Though the contributions by science-based writers are important (e.g., Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday, George Perkins Marsh, John Muir, etc.) New Materialist Interpretations of 19th-century Writers focuses on a different trajectory, accentuating less detectable and unacknowledged contributions to natural history writing offered by literary writers.