Mixed Media in Contemporary American Literature: Voices Gone Viral

225 Pages·2021·10.624 MB·English

by  Joelle Mann

Mixed Media in Contemporary
American Literature
Mixed Media in Contemporary American Literature: Voices Gone Viral
investigates the formation and formulation of the contemporary novel
through a historical analysis of voice studies and media studies. After
situating research through voices of nineteenth- and twentieth-century
American literature, this book examines the expressions of a multi-media
vocality, examining the interactions among cultural polemics, aesthetic
forms, and changing media in the twenty-first century. The novel studies
shown here trace the ways in which the viral aesthetics of the contemporary
novel move language out of context, recontextualizing human testimony
by galvanizing mixed media forms that shape contemporary literature
in our age of networks. Through readings of American authors such
as Claudia Rankine, David Foster Wallace, Jennifer Egan, Junot Díaz,
Michael Chabon, Joseph O’Neill, Michael Cunningham, and Colum
McCann, the book considers how voice acts as a site where identities
combine, conform, and are questioned relationally. By listening to and
tracing the spoken and unspoken voices of the novel, the author identifies
a politics of listening and speaking in our mediated, informational society.
Joelle Mann is faculty in the Writing Initiative at Binghamton University,
where she teaches courses on composition, rhetoric, technical writing,
and digital writing. Joelle’s research investigates changing medial tropes
and their sociopolitical implications in multimodal literature and writing.
Aside from earning her doctorate from Stony Brook University, Joelle
also has advanced teaching certifications in Media, Art, and Technology
as well as in Cultural Studies. She is on the executive board for the SUNY
Council on Writing, and she has published articles in a variety of literary
journals, including Critique: Contemporary Studies in Fiction, Children’s
Literature, The American Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literature, and
Pedagogy and Literary Studies.
Routledge Research in American Literature and Culture
Rethinking Fiction after the 2007/8 Financial Crisis
Consumption, Economics and the American Dream
Mirosław Aleksander Miernik
Interpreting Susan Sontag’s Essays
Radical Contemplative
Mark K. Fulk
Trauma and Fictions of the ‘War on Terror'
Disrupting Memory
Sarah O’Brien
Global Ambiguity in Nineteenth-Century American Gothic
A Study in Form, History, and Culture
Wanlin Li
Mixed Media in Contemporary American Literature
Voices Gone Viral
Joelle Mann
Alzheimer’s Disease in Contemporary U.S. Fiction
Memory Lost
Cristina Garrigós
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www .routledge
.com /Routledge -Research -in -American -Literature -and -Culture /book -series /
RRAL
Mixed Media in
Contemporary American
Literature
Voices Gone Viral
Joelle Mann
First published 2021
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Joelle Mann to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-56351-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-02881-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09737-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
For my parents, Mike and Judy Mann,
who have given me my sense of inner voice and vision.
For Stacey Olster,
whose mentorship remains a guiding strength.

Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Facing the Voices of the Imagetext in Claudia Rankine’s
Citizen 18
2 Voices within the Neoliberal Machine in David Foster
Wallace’s The Pale King 43
3 Listening to the Vocal Remix and Surround Sound of
Jennifer Egan’s Goon Squad 70
4 Vocal and Comic Deformance in Michael Chabon and
Junot Díaz 100
5 The M/other Tongues of Michael Cunningham, Joseph
O’Neill, and Colum McCann 137
Conclusion: One Final Voice on Voice 175
Works Cited 182
Index 197
Figures
1.1 Carrie Mae Weems, Blue Black Boy, 1987–1988. © Carrie
Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman
Gallery, New York. This image appears on pp. 102–3 of
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen 22
1.2 Toyin Ojih Odutola, Uncertain, yet Reserved (Adeola.
Abuja Airport, Nigeria), 2012. © Toyin Ojih Odutola.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New
York. This image appears on p. 87 of Claudia Rankine’s
Citizen 24
1.3 Carl Mydans, Back Yard of Alley Dwelling, 1941. Image
courtesy of the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the
Library of Congress. This image appears as the final image
in Richard Wright’s Twelve Million Black Voices (1941) 27
1.4 Michael David Murphy, Jim Crow Road, 2007. Image
courtesy of Michael David Murphy. This appears as the
first image in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen 28
1.5 Kate Clark, Little Girl, 2008. Image courtesy of Kate
Clark: https://www. kateclark .com/. This image appears on
p. 19 of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen 30
1.6 AFP via Getty Images/John Lucas. Public Lynching,
August 30, 1930. An altered photograph of a public
lynching, Marion, Indiana, August 30, 1930, created
by photographer, John Lucas, from p. 91 of Claudia
Rankine’s Citizen 32
1.7 Glenn Ligon, Untitled (Four Etchings), 1992, 2 in a suite of
4, Softground etching, aquatint, spit bite, and sugarlift on
paper, Each: 25 × 17 3/8 inches (63.5 × 43.2 cm); Edition
of 45 and 10 APs; Published by Max Protech Gallery;
Printed By Burnet Editions, NY; © Glenn Ligon; Courtesy
of the artist, Hauser & Wirth, New York, Regen Projects,
Los Angeles, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, and Chantal
Crousel, Paris. This image appears on pp. 52–53 of Claudia
Rankine’s Citizen 34
Figures ix
1.8 Tennis-Brazil-Wozniacki-Exhibition, Dec. 7, 2012. Image
courtesy of AFP via Getty Images. This image appears on
p. 37 of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen 36
1.9 Wangechi Mutu “Sleeping Heads,” 2006. Mixed media,
collage on Mylar; “wounded wall”: punctured latex 16.93
inch H × 21.65 inch W (43 cm H × 55 cm W) each (series
of eight). Inventory #MUT408 Courtesy of the artist and
Vielmetter Los Angeles. This image appears on p. 147 of
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen 39
3.1 Organizational slide written by Alison Blake appears on
p. 235 of Goon Squad. Image courtesy of Jennifer Egan
and Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday
Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House
LLC and Little Brown Book Group 92
3.2 Representation of family picture appears on p. 236 of
Goon Squad. Image courtesy of Jennifer Egan and Alfred
A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC and
Little Brown Book Group 93
3.3 Sasha’s language which repeats and returns on p. 239 of
Goon Squad. Image courtesy of Jennifer Egan and Alfred
A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC and
Little Brown Book Group 94
3.4 Drew and Lincoln’s nighttime conversation and
reconciliation pp. 301–3 of Goon Squad. Images courtesy
of Jennifer Egan and Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin
Random House LLC and Little Brown Book Group 95
3.5 Unnarrated slide to represent “US” p. 304 of Goon Squad.
Image courtesy of Jennifer Egan and Alfred A. Knopf,
an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a
division of Penguin Random House LLC and Little Brown
Book Group 96
4.1 René Magritte, “Les Mots et les Images.” La Révolution
surréaliste, vol. 12, 1929, pp. 32–33. Gallica, Bibliothéque
nationale de France, https://gallica .bnf .fr /ark: /12148 /
bpt6k58451673 /f38 .image 110
4.2 André Breton. “Le Surhomme.” First Papers of Surrealism
catalogue, New York 1942. Coordinating Council of
French Relief Societies, Inc. with permissions from Artists
Rights Society. © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York / ADAGP, Paris 111