The Literature of Waste: Material Ecopoetics and Ethical Matter

331 Pages·2015·6.78 MB·English

by  Susan Signe Morrison (auth.)

The Literature of Waste

The Literature of Waste
Material Ecopoetics and
Ethical Matter
Susan Signe Morrison
THELITERATUREOFWASTE
Copyright © Susan Signe Morrison, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-40566-1
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-68074-0 ISBN 978-1-137-39444-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137394446
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morrison, Susan Signe, 1959–
The literature of waste : material ecopoetics and ethical matter /
by Susan Signe Morrison.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Literature and society. 2. Refuse and refuse disposal in literature.
3. Waste (Economics) in literature. 4. Consumption (Economics) in
literature. 5. Recycling (Waste, etc.) 6. Ecocriticism. 7. Excess (Philosophy)
I. Title.
PN51.M676 2015
8 09(cid:2).93358—dc23 2014047263
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: June 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Mr. Alfred Short, who took me to the dump in
South Dennis, Massachusetts, in his old truck
piled high with sandy seaweed and garbage cans

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
P ermissions xiii
Introduction The Waste-ern Literary Canon in
the Waste-ern Tradition 1
Part I Treatment and Disposal:
Approaches to Disciplining Waste
1 Codification: The Anxiety of Ambiguity 17
2 The Fragmented and Corruptible Body: Gendered Waste 29
3 The Civilizing Process: Divisive Divisions 45
4 Memory and Narrative: Ruins, Nostalgia, and Ghosts 55
5 Failed Source Reduction: Conspicuous Consumption and
the Inability to Minimize 65
6 Urban Myths: The Civilized and Pristine City-Body 75
7 Interiorized Waste: Sin and Metaphysical Meaninglessness 85
8 The Toxic Metaphor of Wasted Humans: Those Filthy Cleaners
Who Scrub Us Spotless 97
Part II Energy Recovery and the Dynamic
Power of Things
9 The Secret Life of Objects: The Audacity of Thingness and
the Poignancy of Materiality 121
10 Trash Meditation: The Arts of Transience and Proximity 139
viii ● Contents
Part III Recycling and Composting: Form as Restitution
11 Waste Aesthetics: Puns, Litter-ature, and Intertextuality 151
12 Gleaning Aesthetics: Poetry as Communal Salvage 165
Part IV Source Reduction and Reuse:
Compassion through Generous Metaphor
13 Compost Aesthetics: The Poet[h]ics of Metaphor 173
14 Poetry as Homeopathy: The Poet as Ragpicker 179
Notes 201
Bibliography 271
Index 301
Acknowledgments
T
he insights and support of many people helped bring this book to
light. At Palgrave Macmillan, I was fortunate to work with the
enthusiastic and supportive Brigitte Shull and Ryan Jenkins, who
made the production process flow smoothly, as well as Deepa John and the
fine copyediting staff at Newgen Knowledge Works. I am indebted to the
anonymous reader for excellent suggestions to improve the manuscript.
A t Texas State University, I would like to thank colleagues who
endured my “wasteful” puns and insisted on producing them, including
Miles Wilson; Vicki Smith; my beloved mentor Edgar Laird; Charles Britt
Bousman; Molly Dunaway; Cathy Jaffe; Steve Wilson; Dan Lochman;
Susan Hanson; Mike Hennessy; and Rebecca Raphael with her guest,
John J. Collins. I found Eric Leake’s work on difficult empathy and Rob
Tally’s on world literature especially helpful. Diann McCabe and Heather
Galloway facilitated my Waste Studies Honors seminar.
A t Alkek Library, Margaret Vavarek, librarian extraordinaire, under-
took research on Chaucer and censorship, as did my sister-in-law and fellow
swimmer, Barbara Hunt. Kudos to Leo Landrey for sharing his Latin scato-
logical wisdom and Catullus translation. Don and Steven Singer informed
me about various aspects of Jewish culture, for which I am grateful. The
Poetry Library, London, was forthcoming with pertinent information.
Many students deserve thanks for not only bravely entering my class-
room, knowing that waste would be their subject for a semester, but for
taking the material seriously and respectfully, all the while lending good
humor and insight to the class. They include Winifred Hunton-Chan,
Madeline Barnes, Keri Fitzgerald, Rachel Gibbs, Emily Rothbauer, Teresa
Mack, Amanda Sabo, Camrie Pipper, Heather Robinson, Ray Stockstead,
Andres Lopez, Victoria Le Grice, Zachary O’Connell, Shelby Armstrong,
Courtney Glenn, Matt Hudson, Shannon Shaw, Jennifer Jones, Richard
Ramon, Christina Caro, Allison Estrada-Carpenter, Deanna Rodriguez,
Alex Addington, Devin Garza, Rachel Snow, Rachel Bondurant, Richard
Guzman, Holly Ratcliff, and Maria Calcaben. Many thanks to Jeff Wilson,
aka Professor Dumpster, who engaged my students with the Dumpster