Jetsam on Flotsam: Notes on Material and other Remnants and Residues

Autori

  • Thomas Byers University of Louisville, USA, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/12739

Parole chiave:

waste; flotsam; jetsam; devastation; abjection; bricolage

Abstract

In an attempt to open a conversation on the remnant, this essay proceeds as a collection of notes on the following topics:
1) Definitions of flotsam and jetsam
2) Some famous figures of waste: Defoe, Melville, Twain, myth of Hercules, A.C. Bradley, Trotsky, Walter Benjamin
3) Waste in contemporary fiction and media, with readings of some touchstone passages
4) Found materials and residues as subjects in the visual arts
5) Two final images of flotsam
Underlying the discussion of these particulars are three themes based on common reactions to remnants, waste, trash, flotsam and jetsam: devastation, abjection, and bricolage.

Metriche

Caricamento metriche ...

Biografia autore

Thomas Byers, University of Louisville, USA, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Thomas Byers is Professor Emeritus, University of Louisville, and Profesor Honorífico, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Among his publications are What I Cannot Say: Self, Word, and World in Whitman, Stevens, and Merwin (U of Illinois P), and essays in Contemporary Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Cultural Critique, Arizona Quarterly, Science-Fiction Studies, and Transatlantica. He has held Fulbrights in Denmark and Ukraine and the Chaire Dupront at Université de Paris IV. For 12 years he directed the U.S. Department of State Study of the US Institute on Contemporary American Literature.

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Pubblicato

2020-01-25

Come citare

Byers, Thomas. 2020. «Jetsam on Flotsam: Notes on Material and Other Remnants and Residues». Altre Modernità, gennaio, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/12739.

Fascicolo

2020: NUMERO SPECIALE: Sc[Arti]: Riflessioni sul residuo tra selezione e divergenza

Sezione

L'Ospite El Invitado L'Invité The Guest