From Subjectivity to Ineffability: Post-humanist Reflections on Pond

Abstract

Before the dawn of contemporary traditions, such as speculative fiction, literature and philosophy were predominantly anthropocentric. As, the utmost effort to dissect human existence did not wade further than rationalist endeavours at transcending the material self. Conversely, to counter-balance such anthropocentric and correlationist propensities, of excluding being to thinking, object-oriented ontologies resurfaced to redefine existential givens. In the seam of all this, branched by continental traditions, speculative realism and post-humanist art transpired in the hope of finding not just a middle ground that brings together both sides of contention, but a groundless space wherein subjects, objects and hopes for other enigmas defy the laws of definition, intelligibility and cognition. This paper will take on the debate surrounding subjectivity from the angle of contemporary fiction, chiefly among which, Claire Louise Bennett’s Pond, all while going through theoretical commentaries on concepts such as consciousness, unconsciousness and subjectivity in an attempt to answer certain questions, essential to the ongoing issue.