The Value of Waste in the Contemporary North American Waste Novel, 1996-2013

Hendow, Layla

Abstract

The waste crisis is one of the most significant environmental challenges facing the Western world. North America is particularly guilty in this: producing around three times the amount of waste that its population warrants (McGrath, 2019). The Value of Waste in the Contemporary North American Waste Novel examines the representation of the waste crisis in Contemporary North American Waste Novels, 1996-2013. Current scholarship has neglected the role of the rupophile (the waste-lover) in favour of the rupophobe (the waste-hater) and has thereby reinstated the common negative relationship with waste known as Nimby (Not-In-My-Backyard) syndrome. This thesis addresses this shortcoming and studies the unique character of the rupophile in Contemporary North American Waste Novels. It aims to understand their role in creating waste that holds positive value. In creating such characters, the authors studied here engage in a crucial social commentary on waste as a visible substance; giving voice to a major flaw in waste consciousness: its invisibility. I ask how these novels create a new relationship between an individual and their material culture. Furthermore, I ask how these novels encourage a reconsideration of current waste management strategies that focus on the marginalisation of waste. The introduction takes the reader through the waste crisis as a consequence of late capitalist ideals and the actions of the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). It suggests that the Contemporary North American Waste Novel can induce change through creativity, redemption and empathy. Following this, four chapters uncover waste’s key values: nostalgic, aesthetic, sublime and comic. The significance of this study is that it exposes a wave of contemporary literature of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century that seeks to encourage an advanced ecological consciousness through the positive value and visibility of waste.

Citation

Hendow, L. (2021). The Value of Waste in the Contemporary North American Waste Novel, 1996-2013. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4922498

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 22, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2025
• Keywords: English literature
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4922498
• Additional Information: Department of English; Faculty of Arts, Cultures and Education; University of Hull
• Award Date: Oct 7, 2021