Subject of the Event

Reviews / Votes

Drawing on Alain Badiou's notion of 'the subject of the event,' Huber leads the way out of a conceptual deadlock that has informed much of contemporary literary studies. Having less agency than the premodern 'subject-supposed-to-be-autonomous,' but more agency than the postmodern subject 'supposed-to-be-a-victim-of-discursive-circumstance,' the 'subject of the event' allows to think a precarious, invariably site- and time-specific subjectivity that is not either active or passive, but active and passive simultaneously. In a number of brilliantly provocative readings of contemporary American fiction, Huber asks what it means for this new subject - or should I simply say 'us'? - to be 'faithful' or also 'unfaithful' to the event. What ultimately drives the book's argument is Badiou's equally pressing and acute question of 'how are we to be faithful to changing the world within the world itself?' On this background, Huber's book promises to become itself somewhat of an event. * Hanjo Berressem, Professor of American Studies, University of Cologne, Germany * Philosophically rich and packed with ingenious readings, Sebastian Huber's Subject of the Event: Reagency in the American Novel after 2000 is a fresh and exciting intervention in philosophical literary criticism. Indeed, while we may have been told that 'the era of Theory is over,' rumours of its death remain greatly exaggerated. Focusing on Badiou's notion of the 'event' and its complicated interactions with contemporary American fiction, Huber's book demonstrates that there is still gold to be mined at the intersection of philosophy and literature. * Martin Paul Eve, Senior Lecturer in Literature, Technology and Publishing at Birkbeck, University of London, UK * Using Alain Badiou's philosophy, Huber defines events as nonontological, contingent, and singular ruptures. By analyzing Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006), JessWalter's The Zero (2006), Mark Z. Danielewski's Only Revolutions (2006), Paul Beatty's Slumberland (2008), and Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day (2006), he argues that events and subjects are two phenomena that are "inherently reciprocal." America as a concept is fundamentally associated with emphatic events, according to Huber. His goal is to employ a theoretical approach that opposes poststructuralism and postmodernism, while also avoiding the traditional humanist conception of the subject. * American Literature *