Thing Theoryand the Question of Materiality in Cultural and Literary Studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62876/lr.vi35.4106Keywords:
Thing theory, Bill Brow, subject, object, materiality, agency, literary and cultural studiesAbstract
Since the 1990s, theoretical and methodological approaches based on the analysis of material objects and on the reconceptualization of materiality have proliferated in cultural and literary studies. Among these perspectives, the school of thought calledthing theory,developed by the American scholar Bill Brown, stands out in "Thing Theory" andA Sense of Things. For Brown, there is a crucial distinction between "object" and "thing" based on Heidegger's phenomenology that allows reaching an ontological correspondence between the subject and the physical world. This article explores the notions that give basis tothing theory, making reference to other theoretical currents within the so-called "material turn" in the humanities of the 21st century. I will examine the scope and limitations of "materialist" interpretations, as well as their analytical productivity in literary and cultural studies, while showing future research paths
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