Unruly technics in the French literary avant-garde: technological writings of the Third Republic and their afterlives in contemporary thought

Thesis

This thesis traces a particular genealogy of thinking and writing about technics which germinates in French avant-garde writings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, takes root in the mid-twentieth century in the work of major French philosophers, and continues to bloom in the contemporary ‘nonhuman turn’ in Anglo-American theory that draws inspiration from those philosophers. The place of those early literary figures in this lineage has never before been traced, yet they are crucial to understanding why we think the way we do, and to identifying what our contemporary modes of thought overlook, as we face a moment of rapid technological change. In nine linked chapters, this thesis shows how these writers and thinkers are united by a common concern with technics as a mode of relation to self, other, and world, through which change happens and things come into being. Through close reading of primary material, I explore technics as a source of subject matter and conceptual metaphors, but also probe how ideas and words are modes of technicity through which we shape and reshape the world. I highlight how, in this particular genealogy, it is impossible to separate these modes of unruly technicity out from one another. Tracing the unruly transition from Catholic vocabularies of grace, potentiality, and actuality to the modern and contemporary secular lexicon of agency, virtuality, and affect, I identify an ambitious and original mode of approach to a field of enquiry whose importance is only set to increase.

Authors: Chalmers, M

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English and French
• Keywords: Avant-garde; Third Republic; Nonhuman; Technics; Catholicism
• Subjects: Literature and technology; Literature, Experimental; French